Soundwave's Secret
by LGTracy
Summary: Bayverse - After RotF, during and just after DotM. Everyone has secrets, some more than others. This is the story of one of Soundwave's bigger ones. Rated M for character death.
1. Prologue

_**Disclaimer:** Transformers is the property of Hasbro and anyone they have sold the rights to. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. Unauthorized or acknowledged use is forbidden, (i.e. if you want to use it, ask first!) No infringement is implied nor intended. No financial gain has been received._

**A/N:**_ Hey all. I'm back. First let me assure you that I haven't abandoned Children of MegatronCoM, I fully intend to return to finish it before too long. Unfortunately, the final chapter of this story has popped into my head, and I just had to write it down before I lost it. It is completely independent of CoM, and will not be nearly as long (hopefully), so it shouldn't be too long before it's complete. Anyway, it takes place from just after RotF through and just after DotM. Hope you enjoy it. As always, let me know what I did wrong and what I did right. Tracy_

-Prologue-

This was so hard for the both of them; saying "Good bye." They had become such close friends, but Bumblebee's duty was to Sam Witwicky. Even though his current "driver," Mikaela Banes, had become like a sibling to him, their relationship had to be severed.

"This totally sucks," Bumblebee admitted through a clip played on his radio.

"I know. It isn't easy for me either, but your duty is to Sam. Now that we've officially broken up, there's no legitimate excuse for us to interact."

"But you're the best fixer upper I've ever had under my hood," he lamented through radio clips.

"Better not let Ratchet hear you say that," she said with a laugh.

"Bee? What's that?" she asked, motioning down the road to the overlook.

"'Con! Hurry! Get out," he ordered as he opened his door.

Mikaela quickly complied as she retreated behind him.

"Who is it?" she asked when the sounds of his transformation ebbed.

"Soundwave. Spymaster extraordinaire, comm officer and third in command," he informed as he targeted the incoming vehicle.

"So why aren't you shooting him?" she asked fearfully as a royal blue Toyota Camry pulled up in front of them and stopped.

Before he could answer, the Camry's rear door opened and cable tenticles gently set down a couple of bags and a car seat with a wide eyed child strapped into it.

"That's why," Bumblebee answered as he visibly tensed further.

His wary stare turned to confusion as the 'Con deposited the child, a femme by the look of her, and then took off back down the road. Hesitantly, he started toward her, only to stop short at the frightened shriek.

The pair watched in amazement as small fingers fumbled with the buckles before figuring it out and releasing herself.

"Daddy! Don't go!" she said, chasing after the retreating comm officer. "Daddy! I'll be good! Come back!"

Bumblebee felt his spark shatter in his chamber as he watched the human sparkling chasing after one of the most feared Deceptacons of all. Sparing a quick scan for the discarded items, noting a data pad was the only technology, he hesitantly began following. When she tripped and fell, he hurried toward her with Mikaela hot on his heels. He watched in astonishment as Soundwave braked hard when she gave a pained cry, only to speed off again when the scout reached her.

"Daddy! Daddy!" the child sobbed, still reaching after the fleeing figure.

"Oh! You poor thing," Mikaela cooed as she picked up the crying child.

Tearfully, the little girl looked up to the being holding her, and gave a terrified shriek as a fresh wash of tears began flooding her eyes. In sheer terror, the little girl began to fight in desperation, kicking and scratching.

"Let go! Let me go! Daddy!" the child screamed.

"Ow! Stop it. Ouch!" Mikaela ordered before she sat the girl back down and stepped away.

"I was only trying to help, you little brat," the adult informed in surprised pain. She rubbed at the scratches welling with blood on her arms as she looked at the girl in confusion.

"She's just scared," Bumblebee advised before offering the sparkling his hand.

Both were surprised when she eagerly crawled on and sat still, the only movement coming from the sobs wracking her tiny frame.

"Well that's weird," Mikaela commented about the ease with which the child calmed under Bumblebee's care. "Unless she isn't human, she should be freaked out by you and calmed by me.

"Is she human?"

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Soundwave accelerated as fast as his alt would allow. She was in the care of the Autobot scout now, soon to be the entirety of the Prime's faction. He knew she would be safe with them, and yet his spark felt as if it was about to self extinguish.

Allowing himself a shuttering sigh through his vents, he comm'd his cassette, Ratbat, "Designation; Faith Melody. Status; entrusted to Autobot scout."

He was not surprised when the minicon interrupted him with a shrill cry, "What? You turned her over to the Autobots? Why? Wasn't I an adequate guardian? She did nothing wrong, it couldn't have been her fault . . ."

"Ratbat!" Soundwave finally got his creation's attention.

Ratbat's silence informed Soundwave of the cassette's state of processor; he was upset, hurt and angry with his creator's decision.

He allowed his own emotions over their bond as he audibly sighed over the comm. "She was in danger with us," the spymaster informed wearily, dropping his formal speech pattern. "My only choice to ensure her safety from Megatron was with Prime and the Autobots."

"You left her with the young scout?" the cassette asked to clarify and reiterate.

"Yes. He was also an orphan and has demonstrated a fondness for humans," the spymaster added to answer the young 'Con's next question.

"How long until they find me?" Ratbat asked as he got himself back under control.

He had been the one to pack her belongings, as per Soundwave's instructions, so he knew clues had been included to lead them straight back to their home.

"Within thirty hours," Soundwave answered. "You are not to engage," he finished.

"You want them to capture me? Why?"

"To keep you both safe, and to give your sister someone familiar to stay with her," he admitted.

"Understood.

"Dad?" Ratbat asked hesitantly.

Soundwave felt his spark warm pleasantly at the familiar address. "Yes, son?"

"I'll keep her safe, or give my spark trying."

"As would I."


	2. Chapter 1

-Chapter 1-

The trip back from Tranquility, Nevada to Washington, D.C. Was rather long. Instead of using the time to review his constant influx of information from his sources, as he usually did, Soundwave found himself replaying his memory files about Faith Melody. Unsurprisingly, they started with her carrier.

Her name had been Hope Madison. She was a corporal with the American Marine Corps assigned to the above-top-secret psychic division when they "met." he had been both surprised and pleased when he found other telepaths, even if they were organic. Eventually, he determined few of them had much control over their abilities; their connections fluctuating with him on their own end . . . except for Hope. For some inexplicable reason, they seemed to always find each other. This lead him to respect her, which then lead to fondness that ultimately culminated in their daughter.

When he discovered that she was carrying, and that he was the only possible co-creator, he was, for the first time in his existence, shocked. In fact, not that he would have admitted it, he even glitched. Soon after he rebooted, his logic circuits screeched at him with a single, inescapable fact; he could not be involved in her offspring's life. It would doom both their spawn and its carrier to a life of ridicule at best, experimentation at worst. She had come to the same conclusion as well, but insisted he would share their creation's life through her mind.

Soundwave smiled in fondness as the memory files played through his processors of the pregnancy, only turning somber when he relived the day she died; it had been the day after Faith Melody was born.

The date was October sixth, two thousand, eight. His sources had informed him that the notorious wealth-monger, Swindle, was planning on robbing the hospital where his hatchling and her carrier were. He had warned her to leave the hospital, but the staff was reluctant to release the newborn. Finally, after signing them both out against medical advice and employing a taxicab service, she was leaving.

~~~~~ BEGIN FLASHBACK~~~~~

His link with Hope Madison was becoming tenuous as he raced through the streets to the hospital. The only thing stronger from her side of their connection than the pain of her mortal injuries was the fear for her daughter.

When he got there, he knew it was already too late to save her, but he still had to find out about the femmeling's status. If she had died as well, then he would take her remains with him and release her into the sun, a fitting disposal for a Cybertronian.

Once he arrived, he observed the scene dispassionately, his lifetime of war desensitizing him to the carnage, . . . until he located her;

The cab she had been riding in had been crushed under the carport. His scans indicated the driver had died instantly, while his lover was losing a terminal amount of vital lubricant from her injuries. Her heart was beating erratically, confirming that it was already too late to save her. He edged his was closer, trying to be near her when she offlined; he didn't want her to die alone.

It was the sudden wail of their hatchling that made him react without processing his actions, oblivious to the humans surrounding him as he transformed and rushed to the vehicle. The only attention he paid to the rubble as it flew from his hands was to make sure it cleared the survivor; his daughter. Finally, the only obstacle between him and the infant was the vehicle roof. He peeled it off with a loud squeal as the metal protested, but could not resist.

She was laying across the seat, huddled over a small bundle that was moving under her. Gently, he sat her up and removed the infant from her limp arms. Her eyes were staring sightlessly as her head lolled back on her neck.

He felt her recognition as he watched the crimson drip steadily from her lip plates.

"Cold," she managed to whisper as he lifted her broken body next to his chassis.

"My spark will keep you warm," he promised as her last breath left her with a shudder.

"Protect Faith," he felt over their connection as it suddenly cut off.

"With my very existence," he promised aloud as he laid the body of Hope Madison gently on the ground beneath a maple tree.

~~~~~END FLASHBACK~~~~~

Soundwave had beat a hasty retreat once he had removed his daughter and her mother's belongings from the vehicle. He had researched everything he could find on raising human young that was on the internet. It soon became evident that there were as many different, and often conflicting, opinions as there were stars in the galaxy. He gave up trying to figure them all out for the moment and concentrated, instead, on their immediate needs; shelter, nourishment and clothing. That meant currency to obtain them, which he had plenty of access to, thanks to his relationship with Dylan Gould, and a caretaker for the femmeling that could administer them. He settled on Ratbat. His cassette had been the child's guardian ever since.

The spymaster pulled himself from his musings when traffic began to increase as he neared the outskirts of Washington, D.C. As much as his spark was with his sparkling, he still had a job to do.


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N:**_ (Reviewer, Naughtia; here it is, quick as a wink.) Alright, so this is what I'm up to so far. You will notice that Faith gets the 'L' and the 'w' sounds mixed up when in the same word, as in 'yewol,' instead of 'yellow.' I can assure you, there is a reason for this, other than her age, that I will explain within the next chapter or two. Another note; {". . ."} indicates comm speech. I will usually note that when assigning the individual speaking. As always, let me know what I did right and what I can do better. Tracy_

-Chapter 2-

Lt. Col. Will Lennox unstrapped the child from her car seat with knowledgeable fingers. He spoke to her in reassuring tones as she hid her face in her hands and sobbed.

"Easy baby girl, you're safe with me," he cooed as he picked her up.

An ear splitting shriek was his reward when she felt herself be lifted. "No! Yewol! Yewol!" she cried as she reached for Bumblebee.

As soon as Epps had removed the bags from his alt's trunk, he transformed and held out his hand for the child.

"You sure?" the lieutenant colonel asked as he grunted in pain when the girl's kicking foot landed a bit too close to his crotch for comfort.

At the scout's nod, he handed the crying toddler over gratefully.

"I though you knew how to handle kids," Epps said as he handed over the bags he had just unloaded to the young mech.

"I do. I think she's just used to Cybertronians," Lennox mused.

"Poor kid must be really messed up if she calls a 'Con 'Daddy,'" the dark skinned male agreed.

Bumblebee was only listening with half an audial as he briskly walked his precious cargo to Ratchet. He was worried when his scans were indicating she had glass in her foot and she was dehydrating rapidly. He held her close to his spark as he comm'd Ratchet and Optimus with his memory files.

"Bring her in," Ratchet ordered as he approached the edge of his temporary med bay.

The yellow mech nodded as he handed her bags over to Ironhide for inspection. 'Cons were notoriously brutal; he wouldn't put it past Soundwave to use the innocent youngling to sneak an explosive or listening device in.

"Hello youngling," Ratchet addressed the girl as she snuggled closer to the young mech's chassis. "My designation is Ratchet," he said as he scanned her. "Who might you be?"

"Faith, hic, Mel, hic, dy," she informed in between sobs.

"Well, Faith Melody," Ratchet translated, "you seem to have stepped on some glass and have some scrapes on your knees. May I see you for a few moments to tend to them?"

Faith Melody looked up to the scout for confirmation. He nodded in reassurance and was pleased when she willingly crawled into the medic's hand.

"There's a good femmeling," the gruff medic soothed as he bent to the task of healing her.

"Have we learned anything about our guest?" Optimus asked as he entered the med bay.

"She says her name is Faith Melody and she seems to be more comfortable around you guys than us," Lennox supplied.

"Si," Dino quickly agreed as he joined them. {"She is Soundwave's spawn,"} he comm'd so the humans could not hear. {"I mean, his physical, biological offspring."}

"The data pad had a message for us," he continued aloud so the humans could hear, "from Soundwave. Apparently, her carrier died the day after she was born when Swindle crushed her transportation at the hospital. He raised her as his own ever since."

"Wait a second," Lennox interrupted. "Why would a 'Con even care about one baby, let alone adopt her when one of his guys killed her mother?"

"Yeah," Epps added, "I thought 'Cons hated humans?"

"It would seem that this one was special to him," Optimus supplied cryptically. Although he trusted Lennox and Epps implicitly, he had stumbled on horrific evidence of abuse sanctioned by some human governments throughout the planet's history. He would inform them in private when it was less likely certain humans would be able to overhear.

"Do we know why Soundwave turned her over?" the prime continued.

"Si. Megatron discovered her," Dino answered simply.

"Any idea where she's been all this time?" Lennox asked. He could tell there was more to the story than they were being told, however, he also knew they would tell him when they were ready.

"We are no' certain," Dino admitted.

"We found these in her belongings," Ironhide admitted as he entered the med bay. He handed a plain, human sized, manilla folder over to his leader.

Optimus accepted and opened it with gentle fingertips, carefully flipping each document after he thoroughly scanned it. "They appeared to be government issued records," he informed, handing the file to his human colleague.

"Yeah," Lennox agreed, looking over the documents. "It's her birth certificate, looks like she just had her third birthday a month ago, social security card, vaccination records . . ."

"I will require those," Ratchet hastily interrupted, "as well as any other medical records there may be," he requested, applying the final bandage to his small patient's foot.

Lennox nodded and handed them over when the medic handed the child off to Bumblebee.

"Well, well, well!" he exclaimed when he looked at the next document. "Looks like your big, bad 'Con actually was responsible for her medical care," he informed with a smirk.

"Okay. So what?" Ironhide asked in confusion.

"It means that we can get her address from her medical records," Epps supplied with a smile. "Code's right here, doc 'bot," he pointed.

"So, where'd she live?" Lennox asked.

"The last entry was three days ago," Ratchet answered after accessing the child's medical history. "As of then, the address on file was for a northern suburb of Baltimore, Maryland."

"This is quite fortuitous," Optimus mused.

"Will there be any problems bringing her with us?" he added, turning to Lt. Col. Lennox.

"This document here is a temporary guardianship order, naming you, personally, as her temporary guardian," Epps informed.

"Now why in the pit would Soundwave name Optimus as her guardian?" Ironhide asked in confusion.

"Unknown," Optimus answered in complete bafflement.

"You aren't thinking of letting her go back there, are you?" Lennox asked in disbelief.

"Not without checking it out personally first," the prime assured.

"Soundwave has a well deserved reputation as a ruthless killer in battle. He even is known to mentally and emotionally torture 'bots when he want's their secrets. So you really think he's being legitimate this time?" Ironhide asked in concern.

"He also has a reputation as a devoted creator to his offspring. I do not believe he would use any being he even considered his in such a fashion," Optimus answered resolutely.

"Soundwave no' make mistakes," Dino warned.

"You think it's a trap?" Bumblebee asked in a whisper.

"Perhaps. However, the answers to the femmeling may lie at her former residence," Optimus reasoned.

"What is her current state?" he turned to his scout.

"Be vewy, vewy quiet, . . . she's sleeping," he answered.

"I bet," Lennox added. "She has to be exhausted."

"Thirsty as well," Ratchet agreed. "My scans indicate she is mildly dehydrated. She should have at least twelve ounces of water when she awakens."

"That would 'splain this," Dino added as he sat one of her suitcases down and opened it. Inside were twelve sippy cups and sports bottles filled with various types of liquid. Each one had a sticker with a time written on it, and two of them had additional writing as well.

"It looks like these two are empty," Lennox commented of the ones with instructions.

"No," Ratchet commented as he read the instructions, "They contain small amounts of hatchling grade Energon and instructions to mix it with eight ounces of chocolate milk."

"Hatchling grade?" Optimus asked in disbelief.

"Wait a second," Lennox interrupted, "I thought Energon was bad for humans."

"The kind we require is," Ratchet confirmed as he deftly plucked a small, sealed container from a pocket on the lid. "Hatchling grade, however, is not quite so damaging to organic matter on its own. That would probably be why he mixes it with milk."

"So, why would he be giving some to her?" Epps asked in confusion.

Ratchet busied himself with examining the contents of the container while he internally debated how much to reveal.

"Most likely to mark her as his own," he settled on for his answer.

"Back on Cybertron," Optimus supplied as he studied the sleeping form in Bumblebee's hand, "hatchlings and sparklings would share their Creator's Energon signature as both a tracking and defensive protocol. By giving her his own hatchling grade Energon, Soundwave gave her a faint Energon signature that matches his own."

"Then why didn't she set off the Energon detectors?" Lennox wanted to know.

"Because there is no explosive component to hatchling grade," Ironhide offered. "It's pure nutrition. The Energon detectors are calibrated to measure the explosive factor of Energon that would be in weaponry."

"So, how could he make hatchling grade Energon that matches his own signature?" Lennox asked in confusion. As far as he knew, Energon had no specific, independent signature.

"He expressed it," Ratchet said distractedly as he ran more scans over the child.

"You mean he milked himself?" Epps asked in surprise. At Ratchet's nod, he uncomfortably crossed his arms over his chest.

"I thought he was, you know, a he?" he added in confusion.

"Unlike human mechs," Ratchet informed as he intently studied a data pad, "whose nourishing valves are purely decorative, Cybertronian mechs, as well as femmes, are both equipped with functioning nourishing valves."

"Do we have to be a creator in order to nourish?" Bumblebee asked quietly as he slowly rocked the femmeling in his hands.

"No, Bumblebee," Ironhide informed as he put a supportive hand on his shoulder. "Unlike humans, we don't need to undergo the hormonal changes to nourish our young. Ours just need primed to open the internal valves."

"She will no longer have access to Soundwave's Energon," the young scout reasoned as he spared a glance at his superiors. "We should start changing her over to ours as soon as possible."

"What do you mean, 'change her over'," Lennox was curious.

"She has become dependent on Energon to maintain her energy levels," Ratchet revealed as he continued to read the data pad.

"Soundwave gave us his observations and diagnoses," he added at the assembled's questioning looks. "As well as her schedule," he said, flipping through the data pad, "her favorite foods and recipes."

"Well that's good to know, it will help her transition easier," Lennox advised.

"I'm a father," he added at the questioning looks. "We move around a lot, having at least some continuity in our routine helps Annabelle adjust easier."

Ratchet looked at the human for a moment, then nodded his head once.

"To answer your original question," the medic started, "she will need to be switched over because our hatchling grade formula will taste different, have different levels of some nutrients and may induce unforeseeable reactions."

"She might not readily take our Energon," Optimus offered as further explanation.

"According to this," Ratchet continued, "Soundwave tried to remove the Energon from her diet, which caused several health and personality issues to arise. He was forced to temporarily move her closer to him for a few months to regulate her health and energy requirements. He has since tried to ween her off the Energon by reducing the amount and extending the time between dosages."

"I bet that was when ol' Megsy discovered her," Epps guessed.

"That would be my assumption as well," Optimus agreed.

"Colonel Lennox," he continued, changing the topic. "We are still scheduled to depart for the new N.E.S.T. Command headquarters at oh, two, thirty, are we not?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I would like to assemble a scout team to leave on one of the earlier flights. It would be wise to send an advance team to the youngling's residence so we can formulate a proper search plan."

"Yeah. Shouldn't be a problem. I'll see when the earlier transports are that we can swap out a team for equipment.

"Do you want some of my guys to go in as backup?"

"Not at this time. We will require your assistance for the breach though."

"Not a problem," Lennox affirmed as he excused himself to peek into the T.C.U.

**A/N 2:**_ TCU stands for Transportation Control Unit. It is the hub for tracking the times of every aspect of mission prep. When anything concerning a change in any aspect of the prep arises, the first stop is to the TCU which then is disseminated to the rest of the deployment team._


	4. Chapter 3

-Chapter 3-

Ratbat hissed his displeasure at the obvious act he had stumbled upon. This was absolutely unacceptable! There was no way he would allow this travesty to happen. Gently, he scooped the naked form out of the dumpster and plucked one of the receiving blankets out of the bag he was about to toss in. The infant barely moved when he held it close to his chassis and wrapped it in Faith Melody's old baby blanket. This was not good.

Making up his mind, he picked up the infant belongings he had been about to trash and hurried to the loft. On the way, he notified Soundwave of the newest discovery and his intentions. Needless to say, the spymaster was not happy about either the fact his cassette was taking in a human orphan, or the fact the infant had been abandoned to die in the first place. Reluctantly, he agreed and informed the symbiote to also tag the hatchling for his own protection.

Gratefully, Ratbat made it to the warehouse he and Soundwave had converted into a combination organic-mech living space so they could tend to his sister's needs. It would be perfect to tend to the young human mech's needs as well. Turning off his holographic emitters, he allowed the human facade they portrayed him as to disappear as soon as he was within the safety of the building. Now, the first thing he needed to do was warm the boy if he was to survive, he decided, getting straight to the problem. In desperation, he walked to the kitchen sink and began to run lukewarm water into the basin. Hopefully, it would start to warm the youngling's core temperature as he hastily cauterized and cut the still attached umbilical cord as the internet instructed.

"Well, Lucky Chance," the small mech addressed his new charge, "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I truly hope Prime gets here soon. Especially if he brings that medic of his." He began to rinse the dried blood off the baby in an effort to raise his temperature quicker and was pleased when the infant began to move more.

"That's it, little one. The more you move the warmer you'll get." When the infant's temperature was only a few degrees below that of the water, he added more hot water to it; raising the temperature by five degrees. It seemed to help the infant warm up even quicker.

Finally, after the child was squalling in the water, Ratbat removed him and wrapped him in an old dish towel as an impromptu diaper. "Now, we will have to go to the store to get some supplies. Unfortunately, the newborn diapers Faith Melody wore have long since been trashed. And, of course, we couldn't keep her formula around, so we'll have to get some of that too."

Chattering away pleasantly, the small 'Con set about dressing his temporary charge in appropriate clothing for a necessary outing. He settled the newborn in the rear facing car seat and covered him with a clean blanket before resuming his human disguise and walking out of the building. He spotted the silver Corvette and blue Chevy Volt failing desperately at fitting in. Deciding not to waste the opportunity, he walked over to the Volt and gently knocked on the driver's side window.

"Hello Autobot. My designation is Ratbat. Should we pretend to be two humans talking or would you prefer to allow us entry?"

Wordlessly, Jolt opened his driver's door and was stunned when the 'Con lifted a human infant in ahead of him.

"What are you doing with a human infant?" Jolt demanded.

"I found him. We were just on our way to the store to purchase some necessities.

"Now, what is your designation?" the small mech asked politely.

"Jolt.

"What do you mean you 'found' him?"

Ratbat sighed through his vents. "I was expecting you here within the next twenty-two hours, so I was cleaning out my sister's and my living space. When I brought out a bag of trash, the hatchling was in the dumpster. He was barely alive, so I brought him into the loft, warmed him up, removed his umbilicus and placenta and was taking him with me to the store."

"What? You removed his umbilicus and placenta? And you were bringing him out into the weather?" the Volt asked in horror.

"Well, it's not like I actually have a babysitter available at beck and call," the small mech tried to explain.

"What was his core temperature when you brought him inside? Did you keep the placenta? How did you cut the cord? What did you use to prevent it from bleeding? Can we get into your loft so I can check the infant? How long has he been fussy?"

"You talk like a medic," Ratbat accused.

"I am a medic. Now, why didn't you call the authorities?"

"Well, in that case; ninety point one degrees Fahrenheit, yes, cauterized it and used my blade, yes and since he warmed up thirty-eight minutes ago. I didn't call the authorities because I couldn't afford to have them snooping around the neighborhood when I was expecting you Autobots."

Jolt started his engine and followed the directions of the young 'Con to the garage type door while Sideswipe followed inches from his bumper.

"I hope I didn't do anything wrong," the cassetticon fretted. "I believed that he was fussing either because he was hungry or because of the tag."

"You tagged him?" Jolt asked, incredulous, as he opened his door for the 'Con and infant to get out.

"Yes. Soundwave told me to when I advised him of the situation. I was surprised at the order myself," he confirmed as he got out and the medic transformed.

"Remove him from the car seat and give him to me," the blue mech ordered as a red laser scanned the squalling infant. "Where's the placenta?"

"In the garbage can in the kitchen," the concerned mech informed. "It's the only thing in the bag."

"Sideswipe? Can you get it?"

"I don't know. It looks to be enclosed," the silver mech answered as he studied the structure in the middle of the back wall.

"The metal piping sticking out from the roof is a handle. It's on a hinge so Soundwave would always be able to get to Faith Melody," the small 'Con informed.

Wordlessly, Sideswipe did as advised and was amazed when the roof easily tipped up to allow him access. Saving the information to a file to analyze later, he scanned the interior of the structure and retrieved the garbage can, it was already beginning to emit a foul odor.

"Frag!" Jolt exclaimed as he scanned the afterbirth. "It appears to have been gnawed on by rodents. This is not good. He needs to be taken to a hospital right away. At best, he has an infection, at worst, he could have some form of rodent transmitted disease; rabies, bubonic plague, anything."

"But, won't the authorities' investigation interfere with your prime's arrival?"

"Jolt," Sideswipe started before the medic could answer. "He misses his sister. He did what he thought was best for the infant, now he wants to be reunited with Faith Melody." He knew all too well what it felt like to miss a sibling.

"We will have N.E.S.T.'s medics respond to care for the infant," Jolt decided, already requesting medical assistance from the D.C. base. "They can aid with the investigation or conduct it to allow Optimus and the others' admittance without raising too many questions."

Ratbat visibly relaxed at the news. "Thank you."

"So, have you supplied the foundling a designation?" Sideswipe asked as he apparently wandered aimlessly around the warehouse.

"Lucky Chance. If it weren't for the dumpster I usually use being full to overflowing, I would have never found him.

"Oh dear! Where are my manners?" the small 'Con lamented as he remembered proper protocol. "I believe it is customary to share Energon between members of opposing factions," he said as he rushed into the kitchen. He ignored the Corvette's politely suspicious stare as he pulled a large cube of Energon from the refrigerator.

"Would you like me to drink first, or would you?" he asked as he approached the front liner.

"You first. I don't think you'd need as much as us."

The small 'Con smiled happily as he took a healthy gulp.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N:**_ This chapter will actually have a Cybertronian language! Because it's next to impossible to write electronic sounds, I've tried to spell everything phonetically. So just keep that in mind when you start scratching your head when you happen on the 'alphabet,' and the noble dialect. Also, Faith will be pretty much translating the alphabet into a more human-friendly accent. Another thing, I was thinking about making the chapter a little bit longer, but then realized it would have been a whole novel on it's own. Let me know if I should have continued it. Finally, another little surprise. Hope you enjoy it. Tracy_

-Chapter 4-

It was several hours later when Faith Melody woke up. Bumblebee had stared at her the entire time, studying her and rocking.

"Rise 'n shine, sleepy head!" his radio played softly. "How'd you sleep?"

"Did my daddy come back for me yet?" she asked hopefully.

The yellow scout's door wings drooped and he made a sad sound. "No, sweet pea, . . . he isn't back."

The little girl sighed sadly. "He will. He loves me and misses me, you'll see."

"I'm sure he does. But, he won't be back until he knows you're safe."

"Yewol, I hafta lub'icate," she informed, changing the topic.

Bumblebee's optics got brighter and his door wings began to flutter in agitation. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" he played. "Ratchet!" he called loudly as he rushed into the med bay.

"What's wrong? Is it Faith Melody?" the medic asked in concern as he turned from his final preparations for the transfer.

"I'm fine. I jus' hafta lub'icate 'n he got all funny," the little girl answered for him.

Bumblebee nodded emphatically and thrust the girl at the medic in a panic.

Gently, Ratchet took the girl from the frightened scout with a chuckle. "Perhaps you should go get colonel Lennox for assistance," he suggested as the scout rushed off, nodding as he ran out the door.

"No!" the girl exclaimed in fright as she latched on to the medic's finger. "Please don't let him take me! I don't want to be cutsed up into little pieces."

"What? Now where in Primus' name did you ever get that sort of idea?" he asked in utter confusion as he walked toward the human facilities.

"Mizz Munroe," she answered, making sure to emphasize the 'z' sound.

"Who is this Ms. Munroe?"

"When daddy was busy and Ratbat needed to recharge, she would stay with me while he was with Barricade."

"And what did she tell you?"

"That if I was bad, the gomernment would come and take me away and turn me into a 'speriment and cut me up into little pieces so they could look inside."

"What?" Lennox asked in confusion as Bumblebee set him down in front of the bathrooms. He had heard the last part and was quite disturbed.

"I can promise you, Faith Melody," Ratchet began as he comm'd Optimus and opened a channel so he could hear the conversation, "no one will take you away. And we will never allow anyone to cut you into little pieces."

"And I promise I won't ever do anything to hurt you," Lennox promised as he stood in front of the medics hand to address the frightened child. If anything, now he knew why she was so afraid of people.

The little girl looked at him with a cocked head, studying him intently. "Who's Annabelle?" she asked, surprising everyone.

{"Did she just ask about colonel Lennox's daughter?"} the prime asked in astonishment.

{"Yes. It would seem she has inherited Soundwave's telepathic abilities,"} the medic answered stoically.

{"As well as her carrier's. We were able to learn more about her; she was also a psychic before she had Faith Melody. I would speculate that is how Soundwave met her, and why he would become intrigued with her enough to experiment,"} the semi stated with carefully chosen words.

"She's my little girl," the surprised colonel admitted. "She's around your age. You remind me of her."

"Lewl," the child started, mispronouncing 'well' in her unique way and debating something internally. "Okay, I guess I can trust you not to run off with me. 'Sides, if you try, you'd hafta run right past Ratchet and Yewol. I don't think they'd let you get very far," she informed as she hesitantly put her hand in his.

The grin that split the adult's face at the gesture seemed to brighten the entire hangar. "You'd be right about that," he agreed as he lead her to the men's room. Checking to make sure no one was using it, he walked her inside and hustled her to one of the empty stalls.

{"So, what do we do about Faith Melody and her apparent ability?"} Bumblebee asked Ratchet and Optimus through a common comm channel.

{"We should determine if it is exclusive to humans or if she has any ability towards Cybertronians as well,"} Optimus answered.

{"I am also worried about her revelation regarding her fears,"} Ratchet added. {"We should try to identify this Ms. Munroe. I highly doubt Soundwave would have tolerated such mental and emotional abuse of his offspring for long."}

{"Agreed. I have Dino working on it now,"} the prime informed.

{"What have you determined about the sparkling's origin?"} he finished.

{"Soundwave is her mech creator,"} the medic answered simply.

{"How is that even possible?"} Bumblebee wanted to know, astounded.

{"We are an adaptable species,"} Ratchet began slowly. {"I believe that Soundwave's mating fluid was able to map the genetic code of her carrier, repair any damaged aspects and rebuild missing portions that, inadvertently, resulted in a nearly perfect human specimen."}

{"Nearly perfect?"} the semi asked as he began walking toward his medic and scout.

{"Yes. Genetically speaking, I have found no mutations that would be considered normal within her D.N.A. However, I cannot say she is perfect due to her requirement of Energon."}

At that moment, Lennox brought the topic of the silent discussion out of the men's room.

"Hey 'Bee," the human began to address the scout, "Did you notice . . ."

"Daddy!" Faith Melody yelled as she dropped the lieutenant colonel's hand and took off across the hangar.

Oblivious, the child darted in front of a forklift about to put a load on top of a trailer. The operator slammed on the brakes to keep from running over the girl which caused the load to shift and fall off the tines. The clatter of the landing metal drowned out the girl's excited cries of "Daddy! Daddy!"

The noise was enough to make the owner of the royal blue leg the child had seen drop the data pad he had been working on and turn in surprise. Almost immediately, he felt the thud of a small human mass running in to him and latching on.

"Look out!" Lennox yelled.

"Hey!" the surprised forklift driver exclaimed.

"Faith Melody!" Bumblebee and Ratchet both called as they began to chase her.

"What? Now see here . . ." the surprised Que started when he felt the mass on his leg.

As the commotion began to recede, the hopeful and frightened child looked up to the mech she had thought was Soundwave.

"You aren't my daddy," Faith Melody accused when she realized her mistake.

"I'm afraid not," the kindly mech affirmed as he offered her his hand to climb on to. "The name's Que. There's a good lass, up ya get.

"Now who would your 'daddy' be?" he asked in confusion as he stood with the small child in his hand.

"'Cept'con C'mander Soundwave," she promptly replied. She failed to notice the subtle tensing of the inventor's frame as he processed her words; her attention had been drawn to the data pad he was picking up in his other hand.

"Ki, uf, uhsh, viatle, lee-wht, tlol," she began to recite.

"Is she . . .?" Bumblebee asked in disbelief as he walked toward the pair. He had stopped to check on the humans surrounding the accident when he realized the girl was with Que.

"Aye, lad," the royal blue BMW affirmed in amazement. "She's reading the Cybertronian letters on my data pad."

"She can read Cybertronian?" Epps asked in shock as he approached from another direction.

"Aiuf?" the girl asked for confirmation as she looked toward Que questioningly.

"Ech-liolus," he gently corrected.

"Ekk-lee-ole-less," she recited, carefully pronouncing the word to the best of her ability.

"No, Sergeant Epps," Optimus answered for the surrounded mechs. He had managed to escape the human officials that were demanding his attention until the commotion in the main hangar gave him a legitimate excuse to leave. "She is reading the Cybertronian letters."

At the look of confusion on the sergeant's face, Que tried a different tact, "These are mathematical equations I was working on. As in human mathematics, letters were used for variables. She was identifying the letters used for the variables."

"Whoa! Wait a second here. Are you saying she's been taught the Cybertronian alphabet?" Lennox asked as he worked his way over. He had been spending the time to reassure the young troop he wasn't going to get in trouble and it wasn't his fault he lost his load.

"Not the entire alphabet," Que informed.

"Our alphabet, as you would call it," Optimus supplied, "contains over three thousand characters. More than three quarters of which share the same basic form, but have different names, sounds and meanings based on their orientation, size and position of aspects."

"Can you give us an example?" Lennox asked in confusion.

Thinking for a moment, Optimus activated his hologram and projected an image of the number six. "In your language, this is the number six," he started. "When inverted, it becomes the number nine. When you straighten out the components and open the top, it is the number four, extending the left component to mirror the right component in length, it is the letter 'H.' Now, canting the center component into a decline from the top-left to the bottom-right, it becomes the letter 'N.' A rotation of ninety degrees will produce the letter 'Z,' but arcing the top two components together produces the number two. However, if, instead, the central component of the 'N' is fractured and is placed in a decline to incline between the top of the side components, it becomes an 'M.' Inverted, it is the letter 'W,' but rotated ninety degrees, it can either become a letter 'E' or a number three . . ."

"Alright! Alright, already. I get it," Lennox interrupted as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're saying that she might be able to tell the difference between 'M' and 'W' but she gets confused between 'E' and three when she doesn't have a frame of reference."

"Yes, only our language can have the same basic component arrangement be oriented twelve different ways and each one be a different number or letter." Ratchet informed as he handed the child one of her sports bottles with the milk/Energon mixture.

Before the child could take the drink, Dino came racing into the hangar, shouting in a strange Cybertronian language. In response, the girl clapped her hands over her ears and yelled back, "Eichne! Vohl-yop! Plok ul nyom!"

For a moment, everyone stopped and gaped at the pair.

"What did she just say?" Epps asked in bewilderment.

"'Stop!'" Optimus automatically translated. "Rebuke, 'bad word,' proper address, 'a child is present.'"

"She speaks Autobot?" Lennox asked in amazement.

"No," Dino informed, coming out of his shock. "She speak dialecte called 'Uhsh-nu,'" he said with a soft static sound in the middle of the name. "Is a, . . . noble dialecte."

"Please explain what you mean by that," General Morshower directed as he made his presence known.

"General Morshower!" Lennox addressed his superior in surprise as he snapped to attention. "When did you get here, sir?"

"About twenty minutes ago. Came to give sergeant Epps his separation orders, inform the rest of you about the new liaison that is going to meet up with you at your new base tomorrow and to see for myself the baby that calls a Deceptacon 'Daddy.'

"So tell me, Optimus, what are we dealing with here?"

"We are still assessing the capabilities of the youngling, general. So far, we have determined that she was raised by the Deceptacon communication's officer and third in command, Soundwave, has learned some portion of the Cybertronian alphabet and seems to speak the traditional dialect of Cybertronian nobility. Dino was utilizing the language to express his displeasure at the treatment of his belongings."

Lennox covered his snort of amusement at that understatement with a cough.

"I was about to ask her about it when you entered," the prime finished, politely ignoring Lennox's reaction.

"How old is she again?" the general asked.

"Couple months over three," the lieutenant colonel hastily supplied.

"Well then, it's going to take you a while to learn about her," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chuckled. "I've got a couple grandkids her age. Trying to get the information you want out of them is sometimes about as easy as getting them to keep a secret."

"We will take that under advisement," the red and blue mech agreed in confusion.

Morshower just chuckled, they would learn soon enough.

"One thing that might interest you, general," Ratchet interrupted before he could leave. "Faith Melody is afraid of being turned into an experiment and dissected by the government."

"What? Where on Earth did she ever get that idea?"

"She had a temporary caretaker she has identified as a Ms. Munroe that would say such things to her, "Optimus supplied.

"Soundwave, . . . is he as brutal as your reports claimed?"

"He is," Ironhide ventured to affirm. "Cruel when he's angry enough too."

"Nu-uh!" Faith Melody hastened to correct from her perch in Bumblebee's hands. She had hurriedly scrambled to the 'Bot her daddy left her with when the new stranger walked in.

"My daddy is not mean," she emphatically denied.

Ironhide looked at the innocent child and decided not to say anything. To her, he sincerely hoped, Soundwave was always the mech she believed him to be. "To you, I'm sure he isn't," he agreed.

"We have also discovered that the remains of a Stephanie Munroe were found dismembered and disposed of in the biological waste receptacles of several laboratories throughout the east coast," the prime informed as he motioned Bumblebee to take the girl away. "She had been tortured in a very scientific method," he added when the girl was out of earshot.

"Dear God!" Morshower exclaimed. "This Soundwave found out what his adopted daughter had been threatened with so he did it to her tormentor. Not that it's right, but I can understand why.

"What do we know about this Ms. Munroe who was murdered?" he redirected. If any Deceptacon was able to get a human to work for them in any capacity, it could mean there were more out there.

**A/N 2:**_ So, that's the way Faith Melodies are made. Any questions? :D Tracy_


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N:**_ So here's the latest installment. Sorry it was so late, but I caught a cold and was fighting through that over the last week. So, as always, let me know what you think. Sincerely, Tracy._

-Chapter 5-

Ratbat watched the security monitor screens raptly. The human medics had come and taken Lucky Chance away while the investigators questioned him about what he knew. Without hesitation, he had handed over a copy of his memory files as well as all the security feeds from that side of the building for the previous twenty-four hours. Now, they were investigating the dumpster where the infant had been found and the surrounding areas, looking for clues as to the baby's birth mother, or whoever it was that disposed of him.

"You know it sure was fortunate that you had all these security cameras pointed down that alley," Sideswipe mentioned, skeptical about the reasons behind their purpose.

"We spared no expense in the protection of Faith Melody," the small mech shrugged. "But, being as she is human, and a sparkling, the bulk of our defenses were for alert and deterrence instead of attack."

"I can imagine," Jolt allowed. "If she were to accidentally trip one, being human, you couldn't just reattach something that was blown off."

"Exactly," the small mech agreed, still watching the humans mill around his home.

"So when will she get here?" he asked, sparing a brief glance at the blue medic.

"That's unknown. Probably won't bring her here at all," Sideswipe shrugged.

"What! Why?" the small mech demanded.

"We do not know all the reasons surrounding her relocation," Jolt explained. "Optimus will never allow her to return to a dangerous situation."

"Megatron doesn't know where we are. She is safe here," the cassetticon tried to reassure.

"Then why did Soundwave give her to us if you were adequate enough protection?" the silver mech asked smugly. "Besides, what does ole' Megsy want with the sparkling anyway?"

"He wants to breed her with Starscream, then, if the results are satisfactory, he will breed with her," Ratbat answered with a huff as he turned back to the monitors.

"What?" the medic asked in shock. "But, she's only three Earth years old, she will not be physically mature enough to mate for at least another ten years, even then, that's pushing it."

"Why in Primus' name would he want to even try to breed with a human?" the 'Vette asked in confusion. "I mean, it's not possible to mix Cybertronian with organic to create anything viable, is it?"

The Cassetticon just stared at the front liner incredulously. "Do you not know?"

"Know what?" Jolt asked.

"Faith Melody is my sister because Soundwave is both of our mech creator. She is biologically his, which is why she needs small amounts of hatchling grade Energon," the small mech informed in shock.

"We should inform Ratchet and Optimus Prime of this, right away," the medic replied instantly.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

After practically prying Faith Melody out of Bumblebee's hands with a crow bar, she was sitting comfortably in her car seat strapped into Optimus Prime's alt. He, in turn, was strapped into the C-17 and found it amusing that the little girl had fallen asleep within ten minutes of takeoff until she had woken up five minutes ago. He had wanted to see what other sort of information he could glean from the young hybrid.

"Could you not sleep, Faith Melody?" he asked of the now awake child.

"I'm hungry," she informed.

He reviewed his memory files and cursed his oversight; she had been under Bumblebee's care since late that morning and had not been given any solid sustenance since, and it was now going on midnight.

"Yes, I am certain that you are." Directing his voice externally, he addressed Lt. Col. Lennox. "Colonel Lennox, I am sorry to trouble you," he started.

"No, no trouble," the sleepy human assured as he yawned and stretched. "What's up?"

"Do we have any solid sustenance suitable for Faith Melody?"

"Solid . . .? Oh! You mean she's hungry," the still tired male translated. "Yeah, I have some peanut butter and cheese crackers and a chocolate cereal bar," he offered. "Do you know if she's allergic to peanuts?"

"Faith Melody, do you ever eat peanuts?" the Peterbilt asked of his small passenger.

"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Are 'peanuts' in peanut butter?"

"Yes, you cannot have peanut butter without peanuts," he chuckled.

"Yeah, I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day for lunch."

"Would you like some peanut butter crackers and a chocolate cereal bar?"

"Yeah!"

"Colonel Lennox will have to come in here to give it to you, will that be alright?"

"Mmmmm, okay. He doesn't want to do anything mean to me," she replied seriously.

"Colonel Lennox," he addressed the human before he could fall back to sleep.

"Can she eat peanuts?" he asked as he fished in his pockets for the mentioned food items.

"She claims to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday for lunch."

"Then here," he said as he unbuckled himself and approached Optimus. "She isn't going to freak out on me, is she?"

"No. She was informed of your approach and has decided you mean her no harm," the semi assured as he swung open his driver side door.

"Glad to hear it," the human replied drolly as he swung himself inside the cab.

"Hey Faith," he turned his attention to the child. "'Member me?"

"Yes, kernal Lennox," she answered carefully. "How are you this evening?"

The human chuckled at her propriety. "Very well, thank you. And yourself?"

"Hungry, but alright."

"That's why I'm here," the officer replied with a smile as he handed over the crackers and cereal bar.

The child graciously accepted the food before she hungrily began to scarf the opened crackers into her mouth. "Fank 'ou," she said with a full mouth.

"You're welcome. Please remember that it is impolite to talk with your mouth full," Lennox gently corrected.

The child struggled to swallow the mouthful of crackers and took a long draw on her sippy cup. "Sorry," she offered.

"Don't worry about it. If it wasn't for mistakes, no one'd ever learn anything," the human counseled.

Faith Melody stopped and stared at the man quizzically. "I never thought of that," she answered slowly.

Optimus watched the interaction between the humans in his cab with some amusement before he decided to join in. "Faith Melody, may I ask you a question?"

"You just did," the child pointed out with a devilish smile.

"Yes, I suppose I did," the Autobot leader replied with a chuckle.

"Can you answer a question about yourself for me?" the prime tried again. He had to flag a message in his processors that their new ward was quite quick witted.

"I don't know. 'Pends what it is."

"Seems fair to me," Lennox agreed with a chuckle.

"Alright, Faith Melody," Optimus started, judiciously ignoring the colonel's statement, "where did you learn Uhsh-nu?"

"Laserbeak," she answered after swallowing her latest bite. "He said that I 'as a proper Cybertonian femme and should know how to speak like one.

"My turn!" she then chirped happily.

"Oh?" the Peterbilt asked curiously. "Your turn for what?"

"To ask you a question, silly. Dem's da rules," she knowledgeably informed.

"Aah, yes. Of course.

"What question did you have for me?" the prime asked with an obvious smile in his voice.

"What's a 'hybrid'?" she asked curiously, making certain to pronounce the word slowly.

Optimus Prime sat stunned for a moment at the simple question. "A 'hybrid' is a blend of two or more different species," he answered slowly.

"Where did you hear that word?" Lennox quickly asked before his contemporary could.

"Megertawn called me it when we were staying with him," she answered before finishing the last of her snack.

"When were you staying with Megatron?" Optimus wanted to know next.

She thought for a few minutes before slowly answering, "I'm not sure. When we left, everything had pun'kins wif crooked faces on them. But when we came back, there was fireworks going off. It scareded me, so Ratbat let me recharge wif him."

"I'm sure," Lennox agreed as he gave the dashboard a meaningful look. They so had a lot to talk about.

"My turn!" the little girl stubbornly advised as she rubbed at her eyes. "An' I get two questions.

"What's marriage couns'ling?" she addressed the human.

"What?" he asked in shock. "How did . . . ? Where did . . . ? You were in my head again, weren't you?"

She nodded then looked at him expectantly.

"It's not polite to poke around in people's heads without permission," he gently scolded.

"Well I can't help it you think so loud," she replied, completely unrepentant.

"Now, are you gonna answer my question?" she asked doggedly as she stifled a yawn.

"When a couple who are married start having problems that hurts the relationship, they talk to a specially trained person to try and work through the problems," he answered in one breath, glaring at the dashboard.

"Op'mus?" Faith asked as her eyes began to droop. "Why come you're sad?"

The big rig remained quiet for a few minutes, thinking how best to answer such an innocent child. "I am sad," he finally said slowly, "because my people are sad. Too many have been hurt and have hurt other because of it."

"You'll fix it," she mumbled sleepily as she finally succumbed to her exhaustion.

"I truly hope so," the prime rumbled wistfully.

"Now that she's asleep," Lennox addressed the Cybertronian through gritted teeth, "perhaps we should discuss a few things since no one can hear anything said in your cab!"

"Yes, we should discuss a few things. Allow me to conference Ratchet in."


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N:**_ First of all, I would like to apologize for the time skips, they are intended. If I tried to write each and every day, this would be another 60 or more chapter story, I'm trying to keep this one to under 20 chapters._

-Chapter 6-

Soundwave chuckled at his daughter's "thinking so loud" comment. He'd have to remember that one. Sighing through his vents, he had to admit that Faith Melody was a firecracker, as the humans would say.

He listened in on the conversation through the tracker/communicator hidden in the buttons on her overalls, exerting calming, soothing feelings over their bond. Hearing her yawn, he was pleased to note that it was working; she would be asleep soon.

"Op'mus? Why come you're sad?" he heard her ask.

The spymaster paused in his repair work of the relay device he had left on the military satellite. Now where id she come up with that?

"I am sad," he heard the prime answer slowly, "because my people are sad. Too many have been hurt and have hurt others because of it."

Soundwave was grateful that the prime didn't mention how their people had been killing each other for eons to the innocent sparkling.

"You'll fix it," he heard his creation mumble as he felt her energy assume the soft, even hum of recharge through their bond.

The spymaster focused on sending his love for his daughter through the bond as he resumed his work on the satellite. It was doubtful that anyone would believe that the ruthless Decepticon communications commander would be such a devoted creator.

Mentally shrugging, he ran a diagnostic on the relay to ensure its proper operation. Satisfied, he turned some of his processor towards the conversation the human was having with the Autobot leader and medic.

"Alright, now what all haven't you told me about her?" Lt. Col. Lennox demanded in a low tone.

"To put it simply, Soundwave did not adopt her; he co-created her with her biological femme creator," Optimus answered just as lowly.

"Come again?" the human asked in shock.

"She is Soundwave's biological offspring," Ratchet informed gruffly.

"What?" Lennox yelped loudly.

"Shh!" the semi quickly admonished when Faith shifted and frowned.

Soundwave felt the slight fluctuation in the child's energy, indicating a disturbance in her recharge. Thankfully, the steady flow of his own energy quickly soothed her back into a sound recharge.

"I thought you said she was human?" the human male quickly accused when the child settled. "How is that even remotely possible?"

"Our mating lubricant apparently has the ability to mimic human D.N.A. once it comes into contact with it. Once introduced into the system, it then repairs damaged aspects of the strand and completes the process. So, she is human, just an almost perfect specimen," Ratchet quickly explained.

Soundwave briefly wondered if the prime had disturbed the medic during recharge as he angled his descent towards eastern Asia.

"That's the real reason she needs the Energon;" the human guessed, "to keep this . . . robot sperm powered up so her D.N.A. strands don't unravel."

"In essence," the Peterbilt agreed. "However, it also serves as a marking mechanism, just as we previously explained."

"No wonder she's afraid of the government. After meeting Sector Seven, I completely agree that they would very well forget her human aspect so they could focus on her Cybertronian half," Lennox expressed thoughtfully.

"I think we should share this with Morshower," he finished with a sharp nod.

"Are you daft?" Ratchet exclaimed in surprise.

Soundwave wondered the same thing as he swiftly scanned a regional alt mode and headed for his meeting.

"What is your reasoning?" Optimus Prime asked quietly.

"The only two people above him in the chain of command are the President and the Sec Def. It would be in our best interest if someone that high up knew about it so he could keep an eye out for any orders regarding her.

"I know the general and I can promise you that he loves kids. He wouldn't let anything happen to her."

"We will take that under advisement," the prime announced.

"Alright. My wife has invited him and his wife to the new house for a house warming party next weekend. If you agree to it, Ironhide and I can fill him in then."

"We will give you our decision before then, colonel Lennox. Until then, I must ask that you do not say anything," the Autobot leader said determinedly.

"Of course not," the human said, scandalized.

"I better get back into my seat," he continued when he saw his soldiers begin to make their usual landing preparations. "Looks like we're about to land." With that, he excused himself from the rig's cab and allowed Optimus to shut his own door.

"You're not actually considering telling him, are you?" the medic asked with concern in his voice.

"It may be the wisest thing to do," his leader acknowledged.

Soundwave hoped he wasn't serious, even if the logical side of him saw its merit.

"I think its a bad idea and I don't like it," Ratchet announced. "Now if that is all, I'd like to get some recharge in before we have to pack ourselves into that flying piece of tin slag," he finished before he terminated the connection.

Optimus Prime sat for a few moments and thought about this newest turn of events.

"She is your daughter, Soundwave. What are your thoughts?" he asked aloud.

Soundwave mentally smirked at his own naivety. Of course the Autobots knew about his monitoring devices.

"I am concerned," he readily agreed over the transmitter. "Logically, it is appropriate."

"But as a creator, it chills you to the spark," the prime finished.

"Affirmative."

"Do you have any reason to believe General Morshower would allow harm to come to her?"

"Negative. Colonel Lennox is correct in his assessment of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; his affection for all children is well documented."

"He is also a soldier. I am concerned he may feel obligated to report her unique status to his superiors. Do you have any reason to distrust either of them?"

"Inconclusive. Would prefer status of Faith Melody remain confidential."

"Acknowledged. However, if the need arises, we may have to share her heritage with him."

"Understood."

"By the way, Soundwave," the prime interrupted before he could disconnect.

"Yes?"

"What did Faith Melody do that made her think she had been bad?"

Soundwave was silent. His little girl thought she was bad? Wherever had she gotten such an idea? He scoured his memory banks to try and figure it out and remained clueless.

"Unknown," he finally replied.

Optimus sighed through his intakes. "Perhaps she will tell us, in time.

"Do you have a time frame on when you can regain custody?"

"Indefinite. Perhaps after Shockwave is dealt with," the spymaster answered cryptically.

The Autobot leader remained quiet for a moment. If Shockwave was planet side, then he most likely had some scientific study going on, and that meant his more loyal subjects where here as well. "Understood," the Peterbilt finally answered.

"Just so you are aware," he continued before the multiform could reply or disconnect, "we are allowing you to maintain your trackers on her because she is your daughter."

"Acknowledged. Soundwave out."

The spymaster ran an assessing optic over his cassetticon; Laserbeak looked exhausted. When this meeting was over, he was going to have to give his creation a complete recharge session.

"How is Faith Melody?" Laserbeak asked as he landed on the offered forearm.

Soundwave sent him a data burst containing his last communication with the Autobot leader.

As the flier's optics brightened after receiving and opening the files, he addressed his creator, "That was a little blunt, wasn't it?"

"I don't like Shockwave," he replied simply.

"Obviously.

"Our contact should be here in a few minutes," the bird 'Con changed the subject. "You want to talk to him or do you want me to?"

"You return and recharge. I will conduct this meeting," he replied as he opened his chest compartment for the small drone.

Gratefully, Laserbeak complied and fell into immediate recharge before the compartment was even closed.

Satisfied that his creation was safely recharging, Soundwave folded down into his alt and waited for his human contact to arrive. It was time to get this plan into motion.

**A/N2: **_Today is October 18, 2012 and I will be away from the computer for the weekend, starting tomorrow. Please be aware that if you chose to review, I will not be able to get back to you until sometime either Sunday evening or Monday. Thank you for your understanding. Tracy_


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N:**_ Thank you all for coming back. I was trying to get this done earlier, but a nasty head cold has decided to interrupt things. Hopefully, I'll be able to get this finished up before (USA) Thanksgiving . . . Ellie's muse is starting to make a comeback into my head. As always, let me know what I need to change. Tracy_

-Chapter 7-

Ratbat darted restlessly from one area to another in the new quarters. Sideswipe watched in amusement as the little 'Con flitted from one box to another to set the living space up properly for his sister. His few possessions had been packed away in three medium sized boxes and set in the corner closest to where he was in the process of arranging the toddler's sleeping area.

"She should be in recharge when she gets here," he muttered to himself as he concentrated on assembling the small toddler's bed. "So her recharge area is priority one. Once this is done, then I'll unpack the kitchen.

"Excuse me, Sideswipe?" he addressed the front liner as he continued to arrange the bedding.

"Yeah?"

"I'm assuming I won't be able to procure the organic sustenance Faith Melody will require. Should I compile a list for one of the humans?"

"Probably be the smart thing to do. I'll have paper and a writing implement brought to you."

"Ah yes. Humans don't always have the most reliable recall."

Sideswipe looked around and saw a female troop skirting around him carefully. "Hey, femme," he addressed her. He smirked when she jumped at his address and stared up at him fearfully.

"Yeah, a, y-yes?"

"You got some paper and something to write with? Ratbat needs to compile a," he mused as he researched the proper term, "grocery list for the sparkling coming with the others."

"S-sparkling?" she asked hesitantly.

"It's our term for our young. A human sparkling recently came under our care and Ratbat here wants to have the refueling dispensary ready for her needs."

The woman looked puzzled for a moment until she translated his meaning. "Oh! You want to have the kitchenette stocked with food before she gets here."

"Yeah," Sideswipe confirmed with a smirk.

"Um, oh, ah, okay, I guess I can take his list and see what's already in the main kitchen. Whatever we don't have we'll bring in," she said as she cautiously approached the small mech that was still muttering.

Slowly, he recited his list to her, only mentioning brand names when the child preferred them.

"Is that everything?" she asked tentatively after reading the list back.

"Yes. Will additional funding be required?" he asked pleasantly as he stood back to look over his handiwork.

"I'm not sure. I'll ask the quartermaster when I give him your list."

"Thank you. If you would be so kind as to ensure there is at least fruit, I would appreciate it," Ratbat requested as he began to bounce on his pedes and glance back at the main hangar. "Just in case she requires sustenance sometime during her recharge cycle," he muttered distractedly.

"I'll see what I can do," the female troop promised as she quickly left.

"What is with you?" Sideswipe asked after a few minutes of watching the 'Con bounce.

"They're coming," he answered excitedly as he continued to arrange the small apartment.

"Who's coming?" the front liner asked suspiciously.

"Faith Melody and whomever is with her," he answered distractedly. He had given up the pretense of unpacking and was simply watching the door.

"How do you know?"

"Our bond is gaining strength. My guess is they will be here within the hour."

"Your bond?" Sideswipe sounded skeptical. She was still primarily human, it was impossible for them to share such a thing.

"Of course. I thought you were a twin, do you not have such a sibling bond as well?"

"Of course I do! But we're both Cybertronian and Faith Melody isn't. How is it even possible?"

Ratbat glanced at the silver mech and quirked an eyebrow ridge. "My guess is the same way she was brought into being in the first place," he replied amusedly as he turned back toward the door.

The Autobot stared dumbfounded when he couldn't argue with the logic.

"I'm going to see if we have a time-line for their arrival," he replied instead as he approached the Cybertronian sized door.

"Keep an eye on him," he told the human guards stationed outside the doors.

"Yes sir!" the young enlisted troop responded eagerly.

Sideswipe sighed through his vents in exasperation; he hated being called "sir," it made him feel old. Of course, he was a hell of a lot older than any human currently living, but still, he was a Cybertronian dammit! By their standards, he was maybe around twenty-ish or so. No, he wasn't old by any means.

"Hey," he addressed the T.C.U. Platform. "What's the E.T.A. On the next member of my team?"

"Optimus Prime and some of the human contingent will be here in about forty-five to fifty minutes," the officer on duty answered quickly.

"Anything else I can do for you?" he continued sincerely.

"No thank you, captain," Sideswipe answered as he turned toward the med bay. Might as well check on how Jolt was coming with the preliminary unpacking there.

He couldn't believe it; the little fragger was right! He did actually have a bond with the human youngling . . . just like his and Sunny's.

The pang he felt in his spark at the thought of his twin wasn't all that surprising. With practiced ease, he shrugged off the pain and opened the bond. He was able to feel the presence on the other end, just enough to know the other was still functional. He held the bond open for a few minutes, concentrating on his love for his brother when there was a faint pulse of warmth on Sunny's side before the bond was gently closed.

Sideswipe sighed in relief at the knowledge he wasn't alone in the universe. Shaking himself out of his suddenly melancholy mood, he entered the proper doors of the real Cybertronian sized med bay; he needed to tell Jolt about this new discovery.

The sound of metal clanking against metal greeted him as he entered the med bay. Following the sound, he found Jolt in the last treatment room arranging smaller, repurposed human tools in a drawer.

"Hey Jolt," Sideswipe greeted.

The sound of metal falling in the drawer was the initial response. "Don't do that!" the medic-in-training admonished. "Give a mech a warning. Some of these instruments are quite sensitive; a drop like that can de-calibrate something important." He glowered at the front liner for a moment before he fished a couple of the tools out of the drawer to check them over.

"Now, what did you want?" he continued.

"Sor-ry!" the silver mech intoned. "I just thought you might've needed to know the human sparkling might be more Cybertronian-like than we realized."

"In what way?" the blue mech asked with a sharp glance up to his friend.

"Seems she shares a sibling bond with Ratbat. He told me she was going to be here within the hour and T.C.U. Confirmed an E.T.A. of forty-five minutes or so for Optimus."

"Hmm, he probably wanted to see if he could get any information out of her," he thought aloud.

"If what you're saying is true," he continued to the prankster, "then it would stand to reason she would share a stronger creator's bond with Soundwave."

"Then we probably shouldn't let her stay here!" Sideswipe exclaimed in agitation. "That'll lead him and the rest of the 'Cons right to us."

"Think about it," Jolt reasoned, "what is the likelihood Soundwave will inform Megatron of the location of his own sparkling? Especially since he went to all the trouble of hiding her from him."

The silver mech visibly relaxed after a few minutes. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he muttered once he processed the idea. "Unless it was his plan from the start; get us to take her in so he could find our new base through her."

"It's Soundwave," the blue mech chided. "He probably knew where our new base was going to be before Optimus did."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," he groused with a sigh through his vents. "I still think those two are going to be nothing but trouble.

"I'm going to go let the 'Con know his sister is going to be here in about a half hour or so," he decided as he turned to leave.

"I will add the information to her file for Ratchet's information."

Sideswipe waved over his head in acknowledgment as he turned to wheel his way out.

Leaving the med bay, he stopped to check on Mudflap and Skids to make sure they hadn't killed each other in the last twenty minutes. He was pleased to note they both seemed to be quite productive in their respective storage rooms after he had separated them. Promising them both he would tell Optimus how well they were behaving, he turned back toward the guest living area when a thought occurred to him; he was actually acting responsibly. He shook his head at the idea; it was definitely time for another prank.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Ratbat looked over the new living space with a critical optic; he just wanted to make sure there were not tripping hazards around for Faith Melody to encounter should she awaken when no one was around. Nodding his head in satisfaction, he walked over to his sister's recharge berth and turned it down, making it ready to receive her.

Satisfied, he glanced back at the door. What was taking so long? He heard the plane's engines die five minutes ago, surely these humans' had the capability of operating far more efficiently than this. What were they off-loading anyway?

Finally, after another three agonizing minutes, he heard the unmistakeable sound of a Cybertronian imitated diesel engine pull into the hangar. Quickly, he was out of the door and running as fast as his pedes would carry him. He ignored the surprised shouts of the guards as he raced towards the open area. Obediently, he stopped at the edge of the designated walk way and bounced on his pedes again as the mammoth Autobot leader slowly approached him.

"Where is she?" he started before the prime had even stopped. "Is she alright? When did she start to recharge? When was the last time she refueled? What did she have? Did she perform her daily dental maintenance?"

A deep, baritone chuckle interrupted the casetticon's tirade. "I am Optimus Prime," he said through the grill, "and you must be Ratbat. All of your questions will be answered once Faith Melody has been tended to." Optimus opened his passenger side door to signal the small mech he could retrieve her.

Eagerly, he scuttled toward the door where he was assaulted by a strong, unpleasant odor. "Oh dear!" he exclaimed, immediately apologetic. "I am so sorry about the odor. She still has an occasional elimination accident when she is tired."

"Understood. Fortunately, it only happened fifteen minutes ago."

Gently removing the car seat and child, he made certain nothing was left inside the Autobot leader's alt mode. Quickly, he began walking back toward the living area. He politely ignored the forceful rush of air through the vents of the prime before he transformed and followed.

"Yo! Man? What died?" Skids exclaimed as he walked through the lingering odor before it had a chance to dissipate.

His leader ignored him as the surrounding humans laughed at the unfortunate mech's predicament.

"No, seriously! 'Id I step on one a you homies and not notice?" he asked in concern as he lifted his pedes to check the bottoms.

The sound of laughter was muffled when the door to the living space closed after Optimus Prime. Ratbat ignored his presence as he tended to his sister. He was pleased when the Autobot commander quietly answered the questions he had posed earlier while he readied the little femme for recharge.

He sighed in contentment when his sister merely snuggled closer to her Fred* doll and continued sleeping soundly. She would probably be out of a few more hours.

"You, unfortunately, found out why we don't give her sugar that late," he addressed their host as he tucked the girl in.

"Yes, the hard way," Optimus readily agreed. Seeing that he had finished with Faith Melody, the Peterbilt signaled to the small mech his desire to speak with him outside.

"Ratbat," the noble mech started once he was outside the door, "I spoke with Soundwave over her tracking devices on her clothing."

"You know about those?"

"Yes. We are allowing them to remain as a show of good faith towards Soundwave's intentions."

"Thank you."

"There was, however, one thing he seemed to be just as clueless about as we were."

"Oh?"

"When she was turned over to Bumblebee, she promised to be good if Soundwave would come back. Do you have any idea what she meant?"

"Unicron take that Ms. Munroe!" Ratbat swore.

"If you are referring to Stephanie Munroe, she is already dead."

"What? When? How . . . Oh dear Primus. Soundwave, you shouldn't have," he finally concluded when he realized what the prime was telling him.

Sighing in defeat, he addressed the mech before him.

"I had been taking a much needed deep recharge under Barricade's supervision and Ms. Munroe was supervising Faith Melody. When I returned to the living space, Faith Melody was crying and I heard Ms. Munroe yelling at her. She was telling my sister that she was bad for not listening, and bad children get sent away.

"'And that is why your services will no longer be required,' I had said, stopping er from the blow she was about to inflict.

"'Fine!' she had responded. She only stopped long enough to gather her belongings before she left.

"Fearing the worst, I informed Soundwave as to the status and he ordered me to begin packing for immediate relocation. When I informed him that Faith Melody was still upset and I was having difficulty calming her, he dispatched Laserbeak and Rumble to help and told me that Reedman would tend to Ms. Munroe.

"An hour later, Barricade picked us up and took us to a motel where we borrowed a pickup truck. After transferring our belongings, Barricade left and we drove around to make certain no one was following us before we ventured to one of our back-up locations.

"That was when Soundwave got the idea to remove the Energon from her diet."

"He believed that by doing so, the humans would not have a reason to examine Faith Melody," Optimus mused aloud.

"Correct. But it was a mistake; she became seriously ill within the week. In an effort to return her to health, he was forced to move us closer to him, which was to Megatron's base camp.

"At first, there was no real danger of him discovering us because she was too sick to do much more than sleep. But as she recovered, she became more active. That was when we told her that Megatron didn't like sparklings, so she had to keep hidden from him.

"She cooperated for three and a half weeks, until she found the snake. Not knowing that black mambas are venomous, she tried to play with it. Fortunately, Laserbeak killed it before it could strike her. Unfortunately, he shot it which made her cry. Starscream, hearing the altercation, came to investigate and discovered her."

"So how long was it until he told Megatron?"

"He didn't.

"A week later, she tried to play with a baboon spider. This time, it was Starscream who saved her from being bitten. That was when Megatron discovered her.

"Of course, Starscream quickly informed him that she was brought there by Soundwave, and he confessed that Faith Melody was his very own, organic sparkling.

"Megatron was intrigued, if also disturbed, that our kind could breed with humans. He ordered Soundwave to bring her to him. Of course he refused, but it was Faith Melody herself that convinced him to comply."

"Her telepathic ability? It was already manifesting?"

"Yes, but her ability seems to be more empathic at the moment the telepathic, at least with Cybertronians.

"Anyhow, that is when it gets quite odd; when Soundwave handed her over, she and Megatron seemed to just study each other. She began to say 'hurt,' and 'I fix,' before she had him bring her up to the damage on his helm. She then caught one of the scalpels and crawled down under his chest armor."

"She was inside Megatron's armor? How did she survive?"

"She was small, quick and tickling the slag out of him," Ratbat answered with a small chuckle at the memory.

"So," the small mech said, getting back to the topic, "Megatron was able to eventually open his chest plates and we saw her nestled in the circuitry below his spark chamber. She was studying something quite intently, babbling with the scalpel and pointing.

"I guess the little drone understood her because it crawled further into the circuitry and did something that made Megatron glitch. She was able to grab what the scalpel removed before Soundwave grabbed her.

"When she was safely in our creator's hands and his scans determined she was alright, he asked her what she had found.

"At this time, Megatron had rebooted and demanded to know what had happened. Soundwave showed him what had been removed and it shocked the Pit out of him.

"I'm guessing that she was showing signs of fatigue at this time; Laserbeak brought her nap time Energon drink and Soundwave put her in the special compartment close to his spark."

"Wait, Soundwave has a chest compartment specifically for Faith Melody?

"And what had she removed?"

"Of course. She is his creation too," the small mech pointed out in answer for the first question.

"As to what she had found?" he shrugged in response. "You would have to ask her.

"Well, anyway, when she was safely in her compartment, that's when Megatron demanded to know everything about her. Soundwave told him enough to satisfy his curiosity, but not everything. Unfortunately, it was enough to make Megatron determined to keep her in his future; she would be bred to Starscream when she was physically capable, and then to him if the resulting offspring proved viable.

"Three days later, Starscream helped us relocate back to this country. I believe he didn't like the idea of breeding with a human, no matter how far off into the future it would be."

"I am sure Soundwave was not particularly agreeable either," the prime conceded.

"So, somehow, she believes that because she was discovered by Megatron, she disobeyed Soundwave's advisement," Optimus theorized.

"And because she disobeyed, she was bad, and was sent away like Ms. Munroe threatened," Ratbat finished.

"I trust you have let Soundwave know about this?"

"You have no objection?" the cassetticon asked in amazement.

"He is her creator; I will not refuse him any information regarding her health or safety, only her health or safety."

*****_ This "Fred" doll referenced is in regards to the character on Scooby Doo. The original voice was portrayed by Frank Welker, who also is the voice of Soundwave from the movie. Thanks to UlurNaga for the idea; she used it in her story, "Primary Mechanisms."_


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N:**_ Okay, so this is an answer to why Megatron seemed to have such a drastic change of character from TF, RotF to TF, DotM. It also answers the question about Faith Melody's odd speech pattern of reversing the 'L' sounds with 'W' sounds in the same word. Another thing is that I took high school French for two years from an American teacher who must have learned from another American teacher, so I apologize if my French is rusty. Please feel free to correct me._

**_Disclaimer:_**_ Mickey Mouse is the property of Disney. No infringement is implied or intended. No financial gain has been made._

-Chapter 8-

Bacon. It has a very strong, unique aroma all its own. Few can deny it. It was this unusual smell that eventually teased Faith Melody awake. But to the child, it smelled delicious. Curious, she followed her nose, not noticing the reclining figure of her brother on the sofa.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"I am almost finis wit de bacon," the cook alerted his coworkers. He put the last of the slices he was cooking into a large, shallow pan which he then wrapped with plastic wrap. Using a towel, he picked it up and put it in the hot rack, noticing the door on the back of the rack was open. Worried that it might be letting the heat out, he walked around to investigate.

He saw a toddler with a handful of bacon clutched in one of her small fists while the other was holding another piece to her mouth as she happily munched it. She was wearing a purple t-shirt with a scalloped detail around the collar and a disposable diaper, a dirty bandage was wrapped around her left foot.

"Oh? Quesque c'est?"

Caramel colored hair with copper highlights framed large, aquamarine eyes as they stared up at him in surprise.

"Is alright, une petite," he soothed.

She cocked her head and stared at him, assessing him, it seemed.

"You like de bacon?"

Hesitantly, she nodded, then quickly held out the remaining slices in her hands, offering them back.

"Merci, but non. You eat it.

"How much of it have you eaten?" he asked as he bent to remove the opened tray.

She shrugged, then held her hands up to him in a 'pick me up' motion.

He smiled as he complied, carrying the child and the tray around to the grill. "Hey mes amis! We have a visitor," he called to his subordinates.

"That's a kid!"

"What's a baby doin' in 'ere?"

Several of the men asked while several more gave non-committed noises.

"Hey sweetheart?" a particularly young troop addressed the child. "What's your name?"

The toddler studied the soldier for a moment before she gave him a big smile. "Faif Mel'dy," she answered before she finished off the piece of bacon in her hand.

"Faith Melody?" the Canadian who held her asked. "How did you get here?"

She shrugged again as she finished her mouthful. "Op'mus bringed me," she finally answered. "On de plane. It was loud."

"I am certain he will be missing you soon. We will make you some breakfast and then take you to him," the Canadian decided.

"Do you like pancakes?" the young troop asked her as he moved back to the grill, the bacon tray in hand.

She grinned again and nodded vigorously.

Watching intently, she saw the cook put some long, white and pink ribbon looking thing on the grill as he spoke with the Canadian.

"It looks like she ate about six slices," the man holding her said.

"Yeah, I see that. I'll make another ten so she can have four more with her pancakes," the younger cook answered.

While the bacon was cooking, he took a pitcher full of prepared pancake batter and dipped a spoon into it, holding another under it so it wouldn't drip. Carefully, he dropped two small piles of the batter on the grill before he made another swooping line beneath them. Allowing it to cook for a few minutes, he then proceeded to cover the first three batter configurations with a large puddle and two smaller puddles, just above the larger puddle and to either side so they all connected. Once the top looked to be somewhat dry and the bubbles had formed all over it, he flipped the creation over to allow it to finish cooking.

"It's Mickey!" Faith Melody chirped happily when she saw the face staring up at her from the grill.

"Oui," her impromptu babysitter agreed. "Would you like some syrup?"

"Please," she answered with a fierce nod as the young cook transferred the pancake onto a warm plate and poured the syrup over it. He added four more pieces of bacon to the plate then handed it over to the towel covered hand of the Canadian cook.

"Merci Msr Stephans. I am taking her to them," he informed as he turned around and left the kitchen.

"Bye Faith!" Stephans called after them along with several other troops.

"Bye!" she answered, waving her handful of bacon back.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"What do you mean, 'she is gone'?" asked a hastily awoken Optimus Prime. He could not hide the worried alarm in his voice.

"I onlined from my recharge half an hour ago and went to check on her," Ratbat said as he bounced on his pedes in excitement. "She wasn't in her berth, so I checked the entire living space. When I couldn't find her, I checked the access logs on the door; she left thirty-eight minutes ago."

Quickly transforming, Optimus sent out a general alarm to his Autobots and the base at large. Bumblebee was the first to online and transform, followed quickly by Ironhide and Ratchet. Less than a minute later, the rest of his team were standing before him and the first humans were beginning to arrive.

"Thank you all for your quick response," the Peterbilt addressed the assembled once Lennox had arrived.

"What's going on?" the N.E.S.T. Commander asked as he tried to pull himself together.

"Faith Melody is missing," Ratbat supplied as he began to wring his digits in time to his bouncing.

"Yes, she appears to have wandered off while we were all in recharge," the Autobot commander confirmed. "Activity logs from her living space door indicate she left approximately forty minutes ago.

"Dino, check the logs for the main gate to determine if anyone has left. She may have crawled into someone's vehicle without the driver's notice.

"Ratbat, go back to the living space and make certain she has not returned. If not, wait for her to do so; comm me either way.

"Bumblebee, access the video feeds to see if you can find her.

"Everyone else, we will search around here for her. Colonel Lennox and the humans will search the human side of the base. We are looking for a three year old human femme, last seen wearing a purple t-shirt and white disposable diaper."

"Vous forgot le bandage," a French accented voice added from the back of the group.

As one, every set of eyes and optics turned to look at the speaker.

Confidently, he walked up to the giant mech with the little girl in one arm and a steaming plate in the other.

"Faith Melody!" Ratbat exclaimed in relief as he rushed forward.

"Ratbat!" she exclaimed in delight as she reached for him.

"Primus! You scared the ever-loving slag out of me. Don't ever leave like that again. You make certain someone bigger than you knows where you are going," he rambled as he held her tightly to him, rubbing his chin plate into her hair in relief.

"I sorry," she offered.

"I 'vesty'gate," she added by way of explanation.

"Investigate?" Lennox asked in confusion as he began to yawn. Now that he knew she was safe, the adrenaline was beginning to wear off.

"What were you investigating?" Optimus asked at her nod.

"'Mell," she said as she waved her last piece of bacon in his direction.

"Ah!" the Canadian smiled. "She smelled le bacon and followed le nez."

"Bacon? Oh dear! I was hoping to keep meat out of her diet for another two years," Ratbat sighed.

"Ratchet!" she addressed the medic when she saw him. "My feetsie itchies," she informed, waving her bandaged foot at him for good measure.

"Oh it does? Well it is time for your bandage to be changed anyway.

"Ratbat, why don't you grab her breakfast? She can eat while we tend to her foot," the medic suggested as he offered his hand to the pair.

"Merci boucoup," the small mech offered to the cook as he accepted the plate.

"Hey! That's a face," Sideswipe exclaimed when he saw what was on the plate. "An animation figure, right? How'd you do that?"

The cook laughed as he began to discuss how to make child friendly dishes while everyone else began to move away.

"I'm going to put a bell on that door," Bumblebee declared as he stomped off toward the apartments.

"Wait fo' me!" Mudflap called as he trotted off after him.

"You go right ahead," Skids decided. "I'ma gonna catch me some mo' z's," he finished as he folded down into his alt.

Several other mech followed suit and transformed back into their vehicle forms to finish recharging while others decided to get the day started.

"Hey Optimus?" Lennox asked before he could walk after Ratchet and their guests.

"Yes colonel Lennox?"

"Why was he rubbing his chin all over Faith's head?"

"It is our version of a kiss."

When the human looked puzzled, the prime elaborated; "If Cybertronians were to touch lip plates together as humans do, there is a very real probability we would get stuck. So a touching of our helms together is our equivalent of a romantic exchange while touching our chin to a sparkling's helm is the same as kissing them on the top of their head."

"Allison James," the human said with a chuckle.

"I am sorry?" Optimus asked in bewilderment.

"I got braces on my teeth when I was fourteen. Allison was thirteen and had braces too. She was my first kiss and we got stuck together. Cut the hell out of my lip, but it sure was worth it."

Optimus chuckled at the idea as well as he reached down to lift the human onto the berth Ratchet was using to tend to the child.

"I was able to remove the stitches," Ratchet greeted them. "We will keep a bandage on her wound for the rest of the day and I will monitor its rate of healing tonight before she goes into recharge."

"Already?" Lennox asked in surprise. "But, you just gave her the stitches yesterday . . . would this have anything to do with her inheritance?"

"Probably, but I would have to run rather invasive tests to find out," the medic confirmed. "It is also possible that it is from the Energon she consumes. That would be easier to determine."

"How?" the officer asked him with an arched brow.

"Administer some of the hatchling grade Energon to volunteers and see how they respond to injuries or illnesses."

"Um, yeah, don't think the FDA would approve that idea."

"You are aware that the amount of contaminates permitted by the FDA in prepackaged foods already exceeds the amount of contamination that grade of Energon would introduce?"

"But, I thought Energon was like gas?"

"No, although we can convert the fuel of this planet into Energon, it is highly contaminated," Optimus informed.

"Yeah! Why do you think we bleed that ugly reddish color now instead of the pure Energon blue we did when we first got here?" Sideswipe asked as he approached the berth.

"Guess I never really thought of it before," Lennox mumbled in consternation. "So, does that mean our fuels are damaging you guys?"

"Yes." Ratchet answered bluntly as he took whatever Sideswipe had brought in. "But not instantly. The damage that is occurring to our systems is both reversible and slow moving. If we can find either another Energon source or a way to convert the available fuels to Energon, the damage can be reversed. Truly, it will take thousands of years before it is fatal."

Turning to Faith Melody where Ratbat was cleaning the syrup from her face and fingers with a wet cloth, he dropped the materials in his hand beside her.

"Crayons!" the child chirped happily. "I draw now for you?"

"Yes, we would like you to draw for us," Optimus confirmed.

"I draw Yewol," she decided as she crawled over to the box of crayons and opened them. Fishing out a yellow crayon, she pulled a sheet of paper close to her and began to scribble a yellow half circle in the middle of the page.

"Why does she talk like that?" Lennox asked idly as he watched her carefully replace the yellow crayon back in the exact hole it left and fished out the cerulean blue. "Mixing up her 'ell's and 'double you's'?" he clarified.

"She learned Uhsh-nu before English," Ratbat supplied. "In that language, double you is always before ell when pronouncing any word, at least in the human hearing range."

"Oh. So, it's like an accent type of thing? Like why Dino chose to speak with an Italian accent? It's the closest to explaining why his English has such an inflection."

"Yes," Optimus confirmed as he watched his ward complete her drawing. It was a reasonable approximation, in his opinion.

"That is quite a good likeness," he addressed her. "I am certain that Bumblebee will like it.

"Now, may I ask you to draw something?"

The little girl studied him intently. "What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Ratbat said that you were able to pull something off of Megatron's spark chamber when you were staying with him. Can you draw us a picture of what it was?"

"Oh that? 'Course I can, but you don't have the 'xact color," she informed as she studied the box of colors.

"If you can use a close color, we can at least get an idea," Ratchet encouraged.

Sighing in resignation, she fished out the lavender crayon. "It's a little bit more purple than this," she mumbled, "but close," she finished as she pulled another blank sheet of paper toward her.

Carefully, she drew an outline that Lennox at first thought looked like a comb, or maybe a cloud, then he was completely confused when she started to add teeth to the bottom of it in a silver outline that looked like upside down triangles. Then, she added brown lines vertically in between the triangles and copper lines above the lavender cloud where the brown lines were missing. Finally, she put a series of green lines through the lavender cloud at apparent odd intervals. When Ratchet gasped in shock, he looked up in confusion.

"What? Do you know what that's suppose to be?"

"It appears to be a code jumper," the medic answered in awe.

"Are you certain?" Optimus asked in surprise. "Those were banned shortly after the femme persecution, and Megatron is only slightly older than me."

"What's a code jumper?" Lennox asked with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"It is a device designed to skip specific lines of code in a mech's core programming," Ratchet informed. "It was used by some creators to skip over core programming exclusive to femmes, law enforcement would use it to skip over corrupted moral codes in criminals in order to rehabilitate them and even the Prime Medical Advisory Guild used them for medical purposes to skip corrupted coding that caused some types of glitches. It all depended on where it was located and the configuration of the bristles."

"Some of the crime bosses in the gladiator circles would use 'em to bypass the self preservation programming on their entries," Sideswipe volunteered.

"What?" Optimus and Ratchet said in unison.

The silver mech just shrugged, "They offered to do it to me 'n Sunny, but we both refused. Maybe Megatron didn't?"

"Faith Melody," Ratchet addressed the little girl as she began on another drawing, this one looking suspiciously like Optimus.

"I yon't know," she answered before he could ask, "if I can drawed where it comed from."

"It would appear that she has truly telepathic abilities with Cybertronians as well," the medic replied thoughtfully.

"Faith Melody," Ratbat interrupted, "why did you think Ratchet was going to ask you to show him where it came from?"

"He said that it 'pends where they were at, then Sideswipe said 'bout the glad radiators having 'em put in, then Ratchet started talkin' to me again. So, what else would he want to ask me 'bout?"

Lennox chuckled as he mumbled, "Glad radiators, that's a good one."

"It would appear that she has a greater grasp of deductive reasoning than we would believe," Optimus mused.

"Hmm," the medic said thoughtfully. "So it would appear.

"Now, Faith Melody, I will show you a hologram of what a standard spark chamber should look like; do you think you can point out where you found the jumper?"

"That's easy," she answered with confidence.

Accessing his tutorial programs, Ratchet quickly located the hologram he used to teach a standard open spark surgery to his former students. He hastily suppressed the brief pang of regret the thought of his former students brought up. The quick, concerned glance he got from the toddler informed him it was not fast enough to escape her unique ability.

A few minutes after the hologram flickered into existence, her drawn brows was the first sign something was off.

"That's not right. Megertawn's strings were diff'rent."

"Different? How so?"

"That bunch a strings was connected to here," she started.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Ratchet was in complete shock. Faith Melody had proceeded to spend the last thirty-six minutes "fixing" the hologram to properly reflect what Megatron's spark chamber looked like when she was in it. By the time she was done, the medic was simply astounded that the Decepticon leader was still functional; fully eighty-seven percent of his spark chamber had been rewired, and twelve percent of that was because of missing conduit.

"How is he even functional?" Jolt asked aloud. He had come in half an hour before when he had finished stocking the last of the med bay.

"Eighty-seven percent," the chief medic muttered aloud.

"Does that mean Megertawn's all fragged up?" the child asked innocently.

"Classic!" Sideswipe crowed as he laughed heartily.

"Faith Melody!" Optimus and Ratbat both exclaimed.

"That is an inappropriate thing to say," the prime admonished, even though his optics glowed brightly with his suppressed humor.

"Starscheme said it," she defended.

"He is also much older than you," Ratbat corrected.

"Starscheme? Ha, ha! I like this sparkling!" Sideswipe said as he continued to laugh.

"Yes, Ratbat, perhaps you should take Faith Melody to your room to get prepared for the day," Optimus directed.

"Sideswipe, perhaps you can help Ratbat set up some sort of art station for her," the prime finished.

After the trio had left the med bay, he turned back to his medic. "So what does this mean?"

"It means that Megatron may not have been responsible for his actions!" Ratchet roared in disgust.

"How do ya figure?" Lennox asked in shock.

"Based on the configuration of the jumper and the placement according to Faith Melody, that device was purposely placed there to corrupt his moral programming. What he knew was wrong before the placement, was suddenly either completely right, or at least justifiable."

"How quickly would this change have occurred?" the Peterbilt asked.

"If her drawing is correct, it looks as if the jumper was a programmable model. It is entirely possible the behavioral change could have been subtle to start, then gained slowly enough to not arouse suspicion, or it could have been all at once, and once his path was set, the device incrementally deactivated."

"What's going to happen now that the device has been removed?" Lennox asked.

"It is hard to predict," Ratchet answered. "It would depend on how long it has been installed, how active it still was when it was removed and how it was removed.

"If it was just ripped off, some of the filaments may have remained behind, which would cause sporadic mood shifts, faulty logic and other random behaviors. If it was properly removed, then there would be memory loss, internal conflicts and a distinct change in personality as the core programming would try to reassert itself. In Megatron's case, I would believe he would become somewhat more agreeable."

"Wait a second, are you saying that ole' Megsy may very well be getting nice?" Lennox asked in disbelief.

"Perhaps," Optimus said with hope soaring within his spark.

**A/N2:**_ Just to let you guys know, the following chapter is going to be a time jump of about a year. I plan on writing the sub chapters in a sort of journal overview from the point of view of the various characters. As always, let me know how I can improve. Tracy_


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N:**_ So here's the latest installment of Soundwave's Secret. Sorry it's a short chapter, but it touched on some important things for the rest of the story. _

-Chapter 9-

It had been exactly ten months, two weeks and four days since Faith Melody had come to the Autobots. Under their care, she flourished; she was an average weight and height for her age, spoke several languages fluently, including two distinct, "human friendly," dialects of Cybertronian, knew all of her letters, both English and Cybertronian as well as could count to ninety-nine.

Of course, the human government was not happy about a human child residing on an active, top secret, military base. Optimus had continued to refuse their requests she be removed, adamantly, until six months ago. She was his ward and he did not want to abandon her, until Ratbat pointed out she had an excellent memory and might accidentally reveal information she may have seen. After all, she did know her Cybertronian letters as well as her English ones, even if she didn't exactly know how to read yet.

The rest of the Autobots, without exception, soon adopted her as one of their own as well. It was amazing how her presence soon proved a maturing influence on the twins; Ratchet speculated it was because they were no longer the youngest among them and wanted to be thought of as "big brother" types. Dino continued to work with her on her Uhsh-nu as well as etiquette rules among Cybertronian nobility. Que helped to teach her Cybertronian letters while Sideswipe taught her about art. Even Optimus had begun to teach her the language of the Primes in his spare time. Ironically, he discovered far more free time available to him now that there was a human child to tend to. Unfortunately, it was one of those lessons that proved the point that Faith Melody could prove to be a liability; Bumblebee had brought her to Optimus for her weekly lesson while he had been reviewing a report on expected new arrivals. It was written in Cybertronian, which he was aware she was learning, but had not given much thought to. He merely set the data pad down on his desk and reached for her, allowing the screen to close on its own. It was on long enough for her to see it, but no one would think she could remember it. The following week, it was Sideswipe that made the discovery. She had been "drawing" what she saw on the data pad and proudly displayed her work all over her berth room. It was an exact depiction of the report. After taking the report down, the silver Corvette brought her and the drawings to Ratchet and Optimus in the med bay. Once the initial shock wore off, they tried to make the child aware she couldn't reproduce what she saw lying on the adults' desks without making her feel as if she did something wrong. Finally, it was Bumblebee that was able to convince her she hadn't been bad. He had been called when even Ratbat was unable to console her when she began to cry during the lecture. That was when it truly hit home, how close the hybrid and the scout really were.

It was this mutual affection between the two that inspired the apparent maturation of the Camaro. His new found maturity lead him to stop "hanging out" with Sam Witwicky as much and seemed to induce an interest in world affairs. Anything that could prove an eventual threat to Faith Melody or the world in which she lived caught his attention. If anything, it seemed like he had assumed an almost creator's role over her. He made certain he was aware and involved with every aspect of the child's development, and she seemed to reciprocate. She was just as devoted to him.

Once she had been moved to another location, one that allowed her caretakers to assume their bipedal forms without fear of discovery, it became a second home to every one of the Autobots. Jolt and the "gangsta" twins, as they preferred to be called, were assigned to stay with her while the rest would take turns between the base and Faith Melody's. They had developed a routine that they would all take turns staying with her when they were not on a mission or required for other reasons, usually briefings or training. Unlike that day, Optimus and Bumblebee would usually stagger their missions since they were both considered the girl's primary caretakers, other than Ratbat. It was this unusual development that would, eventually, have the most direct impact on the innocent girl.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Optimus Prime was livid. The humans had lied to him, and he was hauling the proof of their lie. He vented his exhaust forcefully in his frustration. For the first time in a long time, he was thankful that Faith Melody was no longer at headquarters. His anger, he knew, would have caused her pain.

Ratchet had been giving the girl her normal, weekly physical, mostly because of her special diet requirements, when Bumblebee had come in, visibly upset. Due to the nature of the scan the medic was running, he was able to determine the child's pain receptors had suddenly begun to activate. At the sudden presence of the pain, she, understandably, began to scream. The obvious pain of the child was enough to rid the scout of his emotional distress until she calmed down. Once she was calm, he revealed that he and Sam had a fight, that started upsetting him, again, which caused the girl's pain receptors to activate, again. After that, it was mutually agreed upon by all Cybertronians, Autobot and Decepticon alike, that no one would go near her when they were in any heightened emotional state.

Optimus shook off the memory; he would not be going anywhere near the girl at the moment. He flagged a note in his processor to make a concerted effort to calm himself before he visited with her later this evening; he had promised to come back to tuck her in when he returned.

He drove directly to the back of the hangar, not acknowledging the greetings from anyone. He was not in a very tolerant mood. He swung around and sat in his alt mode, staring at the engine part and stewed. The more he processed this new turn of events, the more questions he had; how had this part made it to this far-off galaxy? How had the humans managed to retrieve it? What else of the ship may have survived? Where was it? Was it just this one part that made it or did more of the ship? Had the ship managed to make it somewhat intact? If so, than why was it even here? Had there been any survivors?

So deeply was he into his own thoughts that he barely even noticed when Lt. Col Lennox and Director Mearing approached him. In fact, he didn't even respond until Ironhide smacked him on his roof and told him to "Make something of himself." It took him a fraction of a second to gather his thoughts. He knew his team would have recognized the delay for what it was; he had been caught off guard and needed the few thousandths of a second to come back to the topic. Fortunately, humans wouldn't have noticed the lapse.

"You lied to us," he accused as soon as he was transformed. He didn't bother to hide his ire as he knelt down to look the director in her eye. "We were told everything humans knew about our technology had been shared with us, so why was this found in human possession?" he demanded, pointing erratically in emphasis.

"We were in the dark on this as well," Mearing tried to placate him.

He watched her in disdain as he rose to his full height. Idly, he wondered what excuse she was going to come up with to justify their so-called allies' treachery. She said something else about "Director only clearance," before scolding her overburdened assistant for not knowing which of the multitude of bags she needed.

"It seems that our entire space race of the sixties was in response to an event," she said as she handed an ancient looking box to one of the techs on the platform. He looked at it in confusion before one of the older techs discretely pointed to a device under the monitor.

As the pair were trying to figure out how to access the data stored on the box, Mearing was introducing members of NASA and the former astronaut, Dr. Buzz Aldrin.

Optimus' felt his anger fall away and respect for the human hero take its place. Silently, he sighed in relief; he would be able to tend to the child this evening without fear of his emotions triggering her ability.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

The blue and red flamed Peterbilt drove in silence through the warehouse district. He had checked on his ward and told her three stories before she fell into recharge, even then, she wouldn't let Bumblebee put her into her berth until she was soundly offline. He felt the swelling of affection in his spark, he had missed the child.

Noticing the approaching intersection, he slowed and turned on his blinker as he stopped at the stop sign. There was no audible sound as the data packets were exchanged. When no traffic was approaching, he made his turn and accelerated down the street. Once he was out of sight around the corner, headlights flared to life from the alley across the street and a silver Mercedes shot back across.

**A/N2:**_ I apologize if I misquoted any of the lines from "Dark of the Moon," I was going off memory. Next chapter will be another time skip past the rescuing of Sentinel Prime in the movie. He gets to meet Faith Melody!_


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N:**_ To guest reviewer Naughtia; hope this is quick enough for you,(I actually had it half done when you reviewed, just didn't have the time to finish, edit and post it 'til now). To everyone else, thank you for continuing to read this story. As always, Logged in reviews will be personally answered within 24 hours. Hope you all enjoy. Please remember to let me know how to improve or what you want to see more of. Tracy_

{"Comm link."}

-Chapter 10-

It had taken Optimus nearly twenty minutes to finish transferring the data burst to Sentinel regarding everything that had happened during his absence. Unfortunately, the humans insisted on subjecting the noble leader to their own form of instruction; it had taken them almost forty-eight hours straight to update him on everything they expected of him. When the humans were done, it was mutually agreed that they would recharge long enough for the ancient prime to assimilate the files.

Sentinel Prime transformed with a hiss of decompressing hydraulics as he stretched his back strut. It had been far too long since he had been able to properly recharge on a real berth, in privacy. He made a promise to himself that he would retire to his berth room for an entire solar cycle once the war was over. A glance over at the young Optimus Prime gave him a pang in his spark, he just hoped that the young warrior would come to understand and support his decision. It would be a true tragedy if he would have to be sacrificed for the greater good.

"Sentinel," Optimus greeted him as he handed a data pad back to Ratchet. "How would you like to go for a drive?" he asked as he approached the newly awakened fire rig.

"Oh? Would that be permitted by these . . . humans?"

"Of course. There are a couple wondrous discoveries I would like to introduce you to."

"Hm," Sentinel said as he stroked his chin in consideration. "Perhaps it would be appropriate to learn about this planet.

"Yes, young warrior, show me this new world."

The ancient prime chuckled at the eagerness the younger mech displayed as he folded down into his alt. Smoothly, he followed suit and followed the flashy rig out.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Optimus was almost giddy with excitement; he was about to introduce Sentinel Prime to Faith Melody, their first hybrid. Eagerly, he sent the comm to Jolt's team, alerting them to their immanent arrival. Inwardly, he was relieved when he was informed Ratbat wasn't back yet. As much as the cassetticon had grown on him, he wasn't so sure Sentinel would be quite as tolerant.

Rounding the corner to the driveway, he was pleased to note the doors were just completing their opening sequence. Neither he nor the elder prime would have to wait to enter the building. Entering quickly, he made certain to pull in far enough that they both could transform with ease.

Jolt stood at attention while Mudflap and Skids did their best to imitate him. The two primes transformed as soon as the doors were closed.

"Sentinel Prime, may I present our junior medic, Autobot Jolt, and our soldiers, Autobot twins Mudflap and Skids.

"Autobots, my predecessor, mentor and friend, Sentinel Prime," Optimus completed the formal introductions.

"Brave Autobot warriors, it is truly an honor to meet such valuable members of the Cybertronian cause," the elder prime intoned formally. "I understand you three were tasked to protect some wondrous discovery?"

"Yessir mis'er Sen'nel sir," Skids quickly piped up.

"Faith Melody insisted on completing a drawing for honored prime, Optimus," Jolt supplied.

"But she's a sparklin', so whaddaya 'spect mis'er Sen'nel sir?" Skids added.

"A sparkling? Here? How is this even possible? The designation of 'Faith Melody' is rather odd, so who are her creators that addressed her as such?" the fire truck inquired rapidly.

"Op'mus!" Faith Melody, unknowingly interrupted, happily.

"Ah! There is my femmeling," Optimus answered just as happily. Quickly, he knelt down to scoop up the child, waiting until she was still before rising.

"See? Sideswipe showed me how to draw shadows," she chattered as he raised her to his chassis. "It's called 'shading,'" she finished as she showed him her latest drawing.

"It is very good," he answered sincerely. He recognized the coloring that indicated himself, but it was from the point of view he theorized she was currently looking at him from.

"Faith Melody," he redirected her. "This is Sentinel Prime. He was leader before me.

"Sentinel, may I present Faith Melody Madison; the first known human - Cybertronian hybrid."

Optimus saw a multitude of emotions cross his predecessor's optics, as he expected. What he did not expect was the look of absolute disgust that settled on his face plates before he could school his features into a polite mask.

He felt the slight weight of his ward pressing tightly against his chest plates. Instinctively, he curled both hands around her in an attempt to protect her. When she began to tremble against the sensitive glass, he became concerned; what was going on?

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Cold. Anger. Hate. The feelings swamped over the child as she stared at the new mech. As she continued to watch, she saw shadows begin to surround him. He was hiding something.

Images began to swim into her mind; frightening scenes of pain. She saw herself in a cage as she was forced to watch the new mech hurting her caretakers until they stopped moving, their lights going out. She could feel her own insides being ripped open and bleeding as they offlined. Finally, when everyone in front of her was still, she saw a shadow that she knew was supposed to be her daddy chained to a wall. The new mech pulled her out of the cage and pushed her into his light until they both screamed and everything went dark.

"Op'mus! Send him away!" she begged as the tears rolled down her cherub cheeks.

"Faith Melody? What is wrong?" the gentle prime asked in concern.

She continued to shake and cry as she clutched onto his windshield wiper blade as tightly as she could.

"I don't LIKE him!" she answered, ignoring the tingle as Jolt scanned her. "He . . . he's MEAN, an' he's hidey, an' he wants to make me hurt, an' he keeps calling me a balmy nation," she wailed, beginning to hyperventilate with the strength of her sobs

"Please Op'mus! PLEASE! Take him away. I don' wan' him to hurt you."

Faith Melody felt the waves of concern, confusion and denial coming off him. Why didn't he believe her? She felt it, she SAW it. He was hiding something and he wanted to hurt them.

"This is highly unusual," she heard Jolt mutter. "Her brain activity is . . . well, I've never seen anything like this in a human."

"My presence seems to be upsetting the . . . youngling," the new mech muttered as he backed away and transformed, impatiently waiting for the doors to open for him.

"'S alright li'l sis," Mudflap soothed when the sound of the fire truck engine subsided. "He's gone."

"Will you be alright now?" the flame patterned mech asked in concern.

"Will you keep him away?"

"Yes, Faith Melody. I will not bring him back."

"Please, hear me, Op'mus? Don' trust him," she insisted. "He's hidey, an' I don' know what it is. PLEASE!"

"Shh, Faith Melody. He does not wish to cause you any harm."

She huffed in frustration, he didn't believe her! She knew that new one was a bad mech. She saw him do those mean things, she felt how much he wanted to do them.

Angrily, she sat back on his palm and pouted. Well, if he wouldn't stop the new mech from hurting her family, she would. "I need down," she stated flatly.

She didn't notice the look of confusion and hurt that passed over the optics of her guardian as he regarded her. "Will you be alright?"

"No. Not as long as HE'S here," she answered truthfully as she wiggled off his hand.

"What happened?" Optimus demanded of the medic as the girl stomped off toward the living area.

"I don't know. Her brain pattern was hyper active in the areas associated with her ability," Jolt was answering as she grabbed a tissue from the box on the table in the entertainment corner.

She stopped in the kitchen and blew her nose like Miss Sarah had shown her. Looking around, her brain worked furiously; she needed to get her family to safety. There was only one being in her whole universe who would believe her, and she had one way to make him come to her. Spying the dinner knife in the strainer, she opened the cabinet under the sink and used it as a stair to reach the dinnerware. Grabbing it, she got back down, carefully closed the door again and threw the tissue into the garbage bag. She rushed into her bedroom and closed the door, angrily wiping the tears that still leaked from her eyes.

Turning on the light, she walked over to her berth and sat down at the head. Eagerly, she reached for the music box colonel Will had given her for that gifting day, Christmas, she thought it was called. Flipping it onto its lid, she used the knife as a screwdriver and removed the screws. Carefully taking the bottom off, she pulled out the pre-paid cell phone that was hidden there. Leaving the music box where it was, she opened the bottom drawer on her desk and pulled the recharging cord off the bottom of the drawer above it. Plugging it into the phone like she saw Ratbat do, she went to the opposite corner and plugged it into the wall. She pushed the red button until the picture and all of the words appeared on the screen. Heaving a shuttering sigh, she pushed the green button twice and put the phone up to her ear like she saw the grown-ups do. In a matter of seconds, the phone was connected and the deep, monotone voice of her daddy was on the other end.

"Soundwave acknowledges."

"Daddy? Come get me," she begged.

"Faith Melody? What is wrong?" he asked, dropping his formal speech pattern.

"I don' have the words," she started, beginning to sob all over again. "They don' believe me 'n' I saw what he wanted to do, I felt what he thought. Please, come get me."

"I am here, sweet spark, what words? Who does not believe you? What happened?"

Taking a deep, shuttering breath, she felt the warmth she knew was her daddy trying to help her feel safe. "Op'mus bringed some new mech called Sent'nel to meet me. He's mean daddy! He's hidey 'n' he didn' want to like me. He kept thinking bad names about me."

"It is alright Faith Melody. Did you tell Optimus Prime about this?

"Where is Ratbat?"

"Ratbat isn't back yet 'n' I did tell Op'mus, but he don' believe me.

"Daddy? What's a balmy nation?"

"Abomination? Where did you hear that word?"

"Sent'nel."

"I want you to pack your things, everything that you can put into your suitcases. I will be there shortly.

"Do you remember what you need to do next?"

"'Stroy the phone and frow the cord away?"

"Very good. I will be there soon."

"'Kay daddy. I love you."

"I love you too, my tshelgin," he answered as he disconnected the line.

Faith Melody disconnected the phone and unplugged it. Knowing she didn't have the strength to take the battery out, she threw it at the wall as hard as she could and was rewarded when the back and battery flew apart. Picking it up, she ran to the bathroom and flushed it down the toilet. Once the water stopped running, she flushed it again then washed her hands. She then threw the cord in the kitchen garbage and ran back to her room. Carefully, she put the bottom back on the music box and refastened the screws the best she could. Turning it upright, she failed to notice it was a little bit wobbly from putting the screws in at an angle. Next she went to the closet and proceeded to pull out her suitcases. She laid them out on the floor and opened each one. Finally, she began to carefully arrange her clothes in them the way Mrs. Morshower did when they moved the last time. Once that was done, and the suitcases neatly lined up next to the door, she pulled out the back pack that Annabelle had given her as a moving present and put everything else in it she wanted to take. Opening the door, she heard the sound of her daddy's engine come into the building. Grabbing the two suitcases that were on wheels, she ran out to greet him.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Terror. That was the pervading feeling coming from Faith Melody's side of their bond. His little girl was absolutely terrified of whatever she had experienced. From the way she was speaking, he remembered many of the same sensations from his first telepathic experience. Not to mention the word, "abomination;" he knew that was not a term she had ever known, especially in reference to herself. She had to have just experienced her first telepathic episode. If so, he knew exactly how difficult her life was about to become.

Pulling himself out of his musings, he sent a text to Dylan Gould; keep the femme, Carly Spencer, busy for the next several hours while he tended to other matters. Not bothering to wait for an acknowledgment, he comm'd Barricade to meet him at the living space. Once he had acknowledged the order, he accelerated toward the industrial district and informed the Autobot medic, Jolt, of what his daughter had said, what he suspected and that both he and the shock trooper would be there within the next twenty minutes. He ignored the medic's questions and issued, instead, an ominous order; prepare to bug out within an hour of his arrival and get the decoys in place.

As soon as he was inside the doors, Soundwave transformed and took in the scene with barely a glance. He sensed the irritation, confusion and alarm coming from the Autobots as they maneuvered their decoys into place. Glancing up toward the living area, he saw his daughter drop the handles of two of her suitcases and began running toward him, shrugging off the backpack en route.

Faith Melody launched herself into his hands as he bent down to scoop her up, quickly lifting her to his chassis and cradling her as gently as possible. "Shh, sweet spark," he murmured as he sent steady warmth down their bond, using the steady thrum of his own spark to calm the frantic beating of her heart. "Daddy is here. You are safe now," he continued to croon as he rubbed a gentle finger down her back in an effort to sooth her.

The sound of Barricade transforming barely registered to is audials until he heard the sound of weapons powering up.

"Oh how thoughtful," the black and white said with a chuckle. "Soundwave, you shouldn't have."

"Barricade, Autobots! Stand down," he ordered in his icy, brook-no-argument monotone.

"Location; neutral," he informed the newcomer. "Purpose; nursery."

For a moment, no one moved, the hum of weapons going offline the only sound.

"Wha . . .? Nurse . . .? How? Who?" Barricade sputtered as it finally sunk in. Any location declared a nursery by either faction was automatically neutral ground. Any Cybertronian who violated that law was immediately offlined, especially if their action resulted in the deaths of the sparklings on the premises. He, personally, had offlined an entire team that had violated that law and attacked an Autobot nursery toward the middle of the war. The images of those destroyed sparkling shells still haunted him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded of the communications commander.

"Daddy?" the child's voice piped up from Soundwave's hand. "He's . . . hurt," she informed as she studied the newest mech.

"'Daddy'?" Barricade asked in confusion. "What is a human sparkling doing calling you the human term for mech creator?"

"'Cause he IS her mech creator, you dumb aft," Skids informed haughtily.

"Her designation is Faith Melody," Jolt supplied. "She is the first known human - Cybertronian hybrid.

"I do not know how, nor do I want to know, but Soundwave apparently mated with a human femme and she was the result," he finished as he motioned to the girl calming down under the spy master's ministrations.

"How is it even possible?" Barricade asked as he stared at the young human in awe. {"You are so going to tell me this story,"} he added silently to the doting creator.

"The working theory is that our mating lubricant is able to complete and repair human D.N.A., resulting in a near perfect human specimen," the medic explained. "Of course, this also leaves a few side effects to deal with."

"Side effects? Is the sparkling in danger?" the shock troop asked as concern rippled from him in waves.

"Not as far as we can tell," the blue mech supplied. "Currently, they include a higher than average intelligence, eidetic memory, organic telepathic abilities, tech-empathic abilities and specific dietary requirements."

"What sort of dietary requirements?"

"Hatchlin' grade Energon foo'," Skids answered.

"Will you stop aggro vatin' the 'Con, you stupid genius?" Mudflap asked as he slapped his twin on the back of the helm.

"They's two 'Cons in here, Einstein. Which one?" Skids answered as he shoved his twin.

"Soundwave's Faith Mel'dy's creator. He ain't no 'Con," Mudflap reasoned as he shoved his twin back.

"Do you two want on cleaning detail again?" Jolt threatened.

"No," they chorused.

Soundwave ignored the quirked optic ridge of his fellow Decepticon as amusement waved off him.

"How long will she require the hatchling grade?" the shock troop asked of the medic.

"The rest of her life. Standard grades are not compatible with her organic tissues, but she requires Energon to maintain the cohesion of her D.N.A."

"So, she'll die without it?"

"Affirmative," Soundwave confirmed. "Weaning; attempted. Result; illness."

"According to Ratbat, she nearly did die," Jolt added.

{"What aren't you telling me?"} the mustang demanded.

{"Discovered by Megatron. Planned to breed her to Starscream then himself,"} the normally stoic mech comm'd with barely suppressed outrage.

"No wonder you entrusted her to Prime," Barricade muttered.

"I like this new mech, daddy," Faith Melody informed as she laid down in Soundwave's hand and yawned. "He's hidey too, but he don' wanna hurt me like the other one."

"Other one? Who wanted to hurt her?" he demanded as he ran a gentle digit down her back, making certain his claws didn't scratch her sensitive flesh.

"Sent'nel," Faith Melody supplied as she drifted off to sleep.

"Sentinel Prime? He's still alive? He's here?"

"Yes," Jolt answered. "Optimus brought him. She seemed to take an instant dislike to him. When we tried to find out why she was so upset, she told us he wanted to hurt her.

"They left about a half hour before you two got here."

At that time, Barricade let Ratbat out of his recharging compartment. Gaining his bearings, he looked up at the black and white in confusion. "How'd you find this place?"

"Soundwave told me."

"Creator?" he asked in surprise "What happened?" His optics dimmed for a second as he received and opened the data transfer.

"She's never behaved like that before," the cassetticon muttered in confusion.

"I know. That is why I am going to initiate a direct neural connection," the spymaster informed as he deployed one of his hacking cables.

"What? No! You can't . . ." Jolt tried to intervene.

"Status; necessary. Damage; minimal. Risk; low."

"Have you ever done this before on a human?" the medic demanded.

"Affirmative."

"And what were those results?"

Soundwave pulled his daughter tightly to his chest plates and covered her with his other hand as if he could shield her from his sins.

"The purpose of most of those sessions were to retrieve information from unwilling subjects, then kill them. A few were to access buried memories of willing subjects. They all survived with no long -lasting effects."

"Is that why you sent her into recharge?" Ratbat asked.

The Mercedes nodded. "Pack your belongings. Prepare to leave within one hour," he added as he liquefied the end of his hacking cable and pressed it against the base of his daughter's skull.

"I sent her into recharge," he continued, addressing the medic who began to scan her continuously, "to prevent pain and minimize chances of injury.

"The nanomites that comprise the end of my hacking cables will access the neural pathways between her memory and sensory nodes without needing to physically puncture any tissues.

"Once the pathways have been acquired, it is a matter of locating the desired memories and translating them for upload." When he finished informing the medic of what he was doing, he offlined his optics and devoted his processor completely to his task. He would not hurt his sparkling.

**A/N2:**_ Cybertronian translation; tshelgin (Pronounced Ch [as in the English word CHILL] el' gin [like the alcohol]) is a rare, valuable and extremely fragile gem found near and around metallic ore deposits on Cybertron. It would have about the same hardness as blown glass on earth. The process of mining the ore usually destroys the gems. In fact, there were only 853 intact gems when the war broke out on all of Cybertron. The rough translation of the word is __something along the lines of 'fragile sparkle.' This concludes today's lesson on Cybertronian language 101. _


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N:**_ Just a reminder, _{"Comm speech."}

-Chapter 11-

Soundwave sat stoically outside of the apartment Carly Spencer shared with the Autobot human, Sam Witwicky. Faith Melody still slept within the special compartment close to his spark. He remained still as the blonde got in and ripped off the rear appendage of the plush rabbit before she handed it to the Witwicky human. Nothing left his vocal processors when pieces of the fluff floated out of the torn toy and fell into the cracks of his gear shift; it was quite irritating to the sensitive neural wiring that happened to be especially close there.

"Here's your foot," she said as she started him and put him into gear.

Mentally, he said a silent prayer of gratitude that they were leaving when they did when two Autobots drove up to the apartment. Surprised, he felt an odd echo effect ripple up from his bond with Faith Melody. Quickly, he sent warm, soothing pulses down the bond to keep her asleep. Running the calculations, he came up with the probability that his daughter had formed bonds of some kind with at least one of the arriving Autobots. His spark sank. She was going to be in a great deal of pain.

A questioning throb made its way up the bond he shared with Laserbeak. He comm'd back his new-found knowledge. His minicon agreed with his assessment.

{"We cannot let her feel the pain of a broken bond!"} Laserbeak insisted.

{"I know. If at all possible, we will try to prevent their offlining."}

{"Very well. We will damage without intent to offline,"} the bird transformer agreed.

Soundwave felt his daughter begin to stir from her recharge. Luckily, Carly had just parked him and made her way inside the restaurant. After a few moments, he felt the familiar tapping on the inside of his compartment.

"Daddy? I hafta lub'icate."

A quick scan indicated that his target had been taken to her table and would not be able to see him while everyone else present already knew him and Laserbeak.

A comm to the cassetticon summoned the bird mimic to him.

"Very well," the spy master said as he transformed and opened his chest compartment. "Laserbeak will take you to the facilities," he told her as his hacking cables gently fished her out. Setting her down on the ground in front of him, "He will then take you to Barricade, who will take you to your new quarters," he finished as one of his hacking cables smoothed the hair from her eyes.

"How can I help you with your perssssonal maintenanc(sss)e little sssisssster?" the bird asked as he landed and transformed into his bipedal mode.

"I can't get the straps off my overalls," she informed him as she clutched his hand and followed him into the building.

Soundwave folded back down into his alt and kept his scanners on high alert as he tracked the movement of everyone in the building. Luckily, Laserbeak had taken the sparkling into the family facilities while he tracked his target into the ladies room. He made sure there was no movement toward his daughter's position; he didn't trust that these humans wouldn't try to use her to manipulate him. Thankfully, Carly remained in the ladies room long enough for Laserbeak to get Faith Melody out of there and outside. Dropping her hand, the minicon reassumed his bird like form so he could take his sister to the shock troop.

"Faith Melody!" he cried in surprise when the girl ran toward the Mercedes. Panicking, he flew after her only to stop short when she flung herself at the fender of the car.

"Be careful daddy," she told the disguised Decepticon as she hugged his headlight. "Come home soon," she finished as she gave a loud kiss to the fender.

Soundwave revved his engine in surprise at his daughter's actions before he shivered in delight. "I will try tshelgin," he promised as Laserbeak wrapped a wing around her and pulled her back.

"We have to go Faith Melody. Daddy and I have a job to do," Laserbeak gently told her.

"You'll take care of each other, right?"

"Of course," he promised.

"I love you daddy!" she called back to the car as her brother caught her by the straps of her overalls and lifted her off the ground.

"I love you too, my spark light. Be good and listen to your brother."

Soundwave sent a wash of warmth down the bond with his little girl as he turned his attention back to his scanners. He watched the blip that signified Laserbeak and Faith Melody approach the signal from Barricade as he tracked the rest of the humans surrounding him. He had a job to do. Unfortunately, it was a rather boring job, at the moment, so he split his processing power between monitoring his target and finishing translating the rest of the algorithm that was his daughter's brain wave. He was at over seventy-four percent and had been able to read forty-one percent of her memories as a result. He was curious as to what else he could find.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Sentinel Prime knew he had to do something to make his successor trust him again. That abomination . . . Cybertronian – human _thing_ had far more sway over Optimus than it should have. The fact it was actually able to get such an accurate read of him was unsettling. He would have to find out who the Cybertronian was that would defile themselves in such a manner as to actually _breed_ with a human as well. They needed to be offlined before any others got the idea it was acceptable.

{"So, who is the youngling's Cybertronian donor?"} he sent to Optimus as they continued to drive toward the west.

{"Hm? Oh, he was a Decepticon. His designation was Sideways. Sideswipe offlined him in Shanghai shortly after she was born,"} Optimus answered easily. He did not fail to note the underlying tone of contempt in the elder prime's tone when he asked the question. He simply could not get the child's pleas out of his processor.

{"Already slagged him then? Perhaps that was for the best,"} the fire truck answered. Well, at least it saved him the trouble.

The Peterbilt's suspicions grew when he could detect the slight note of disappointment at the news the mech he identified as Faith Melody's father was no longer functional.

{"We are here,"} Optimus informed as they stopped on an isolated overlook and transformed. He motioned at the awesome sight of a beautiful mountain before them as the storm clouds filtered the sunlight.

"So majestic and peaceful, this planet," his former commander said as he took in the awe inspiring sight. "Unlike the final days of Cybertron."

"I've wondered what might have been if you had fought the final battle, instead of me."

"Never mourn the past, young warrior. Thanks to you, our race survives."

"You were our leader Sentinel, it is your right to lead us again," Optimus said as he knelt before his former leader and offered him the Matrix of Leadership.

"In a world I do not know," the fire truck mused aloud.

"I am no longer your teacher, Optimus. You are mine." In a calculated maneuver, he returned the matrix to his young successor. If anything else, he hoped that would sway the Peterbilt to trust him over the ramblings of the _thing._

Optimus watched his former leader walk away, back in the direction they had come from. His spark sank. He had been practically raised at the former Prime's knee servo, he knew when the other was scheming. The longing he saw in Sentinel's optics as he watched the glow of the matrix was telling; Faith Melody was right.

He wearily sighed through his vents and allowed the prime to go. Turning back toward the scene before him, he sent a comm to Lead Foot; prepare escape protocol Lambda six-fifteen. Sentinel was going to betray them.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Once Sentinel was certain Optimus wasn't following him, he accelerated as fast as his alt would go. When there were no humans around, he used his enhanced Energon engine to accelerate faster than was possible for their inferior technology. He was definitely not shy about utilizing his lights and sirens either, especially when it would get him to his primary objective; offline the Primus forsaken sin against nature.

When he was within three miles of the living space Optimus had taken him to, he turned off his sirens and assumed a more sedate pace. A quick scan of the area revealed few witnesses for what he was about to do. Managing to sneak to within a half block of the building, he transformed and stepped over the fence to the property next door to the living space. He hacked into the utilities computers to pull up the schematics of the underground lines. Smiling sinisterly to himself, he was able to plunge his sword into the basement of the thing's building and sever the gas line. While the gas built up, he severed the video lines to the external video feeds mounted on the outside of the building. Changing his sensors to scan for Energon signatures and a heat source, his mouth plates set into a grim line, he did not relish the sacrifices he was forced to make. Any 'Bot that would protect and embrace such an abomination could not be allowed to remain functional.

Venting angrily, he positioned himself beside the wall where the three Energon signatures resonated. They appeared to be in their alt modes, most likely in recharge, and a heat signature that appeared to be the true target of his attack was in a horizontal position in another room, most likely its berth room. He felt enraged by the thought that any Cybertronian would allow one of those organics to have such privacy when they were forced to recharge out in the open, like nothing more than a machine. It was unacceptable. He would set the misguided fools free.

With an angry shout, he fired a shot into the flimsy metal of the wall, instantly disintegrating it as he ran through and cut through the alt forms of Jolt, Mudflap and Skids with one blow of his sword. The Energon flew from the fatal wounds without his notice as he leveled his blaster at the heat signature that had yet to move, and fired through the wall. The figure dissolved from the blast that left nothing more than a burning room after it.

Scanning the room, he could detect no remaining organic matter; it had been disintegrated. Looking around with his battle processors running on high, he found no further threats, so relaxed his stance. Walking heavily, he approached the remains of his Autobots and knelt before them in regret. Venting wearily, he addressed the fallen warriors.

"I am truly sorry, brave warriors. The fault does not lie with you, but with the interpretation of the lessons I taught young Optimus.

"The abomination could not be allowed to remain functional. Its very existence was against the laws of Primus! It had to be done. As well as the destruction of any who would interfere.

"And now, in deactivation, I will restore your sparks to the glory of Primus!" the ancient prime promised as he rose and said a standard prayer for the deceased.

Finished with the prayer, he turned around without a backward glance and used his sword to open a door marked "boiler room." It wouldn't be too long before the gas would come up and destroy the structure. He walked back through the hole in the wall and headed back to the street.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"Yo'! 'Bot is caraaaazzzzzzyyyyy!" Mudflap intoned with a shake of his head as they watched him on the security monitor.

"Tell me 'bout it, bro'" Skids agreed as static filled up the monitor when the building exploded.

"I do not believe it! Soundwave was right," Jolt added as he watched the monitors of the surrounding area.

"It was a good thing we rigged up those decoys like we did," the medic continued.

"Yes. We should probably rig up another set; you never know when you're going to have to fake your own death," Ratbat suggested as he cut up the chicken on his sister's plate.

"Thank you," Faith Melody said as she set her Energon milk down and picked up the fork.

"Do I need a decoy too?" she asked once she swallowed the bite in her mouth.

"No, sweet spark," Jolt quickly reassured. He walked over to where she was eating and gently mussed her hair with a finger. "Anyone who gets to know you would never want to see you hurt." The last thing he ever wanted to do was let her know that there were some people who simply refused to see any beings for who they were. In that treachery, he wanted to keep her as innocent as possible for as long as possible.

**A/N2:**_ Hey all, things will be getting rather hectic for me IRL for at least the rest of the week, so the next update might be somewhat delayed. As always, let me know of any mistakes and how I can improve. Tracy_


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N:**_ Hey all, short chapter here. Was going to make it longer, but then realized I would have made it too long then. To guest reviewer Naughtia; Sorry, but it is for a reason. New demarcation; [Bond talk]._

-Chapter 12-

Optimus looked around the destroyed building in shock as a a multitude of emotions warred within him. He had scanned the rubble twenty-one times and could find absolutely no signs of his charge anywhere within. Even if Sentinel had used his blaster, there would have been some trace of organic matter somewhere . . . wouldn't there?

He ignored the sounds of Ratchet and Que transforming behind him. He knew they would do their work quickly and efficiently, before the humans could arrive.

"Are there any survivors?" the prime asked his chief medical officer in some dim hope he had been wrong.

"No," Ratchet answered as he continued to scan the spilled Energon around the three vehicle forms. His leader was too wrapped up in his own shock and grief to notice the scowl of concentration on the Hummer's face plates.

A movement to his left had the Peterbilt reaching out to grab the still mostly-intact sheet of paper that was floating down from where it had been blown onto the neighboring rooftop. It was a picture Faith Melody had drawn in crayon of him, Soundwave, Bumblebee and the rest of her caretakers; the symbol for "family" was written at the bottom along with her scrawling English translation. He felt a tug at his spark as he stared at the picture and the grief began to reach its icy digits across it. Reverently, he placed the paper into a compartment close to his spark and looked up to his medic.

"What did you say?" he asked as his spark began to lift with hope once more.

"I said it wasn't them. They were decoys; the rate of degradation of the Energon is several months old. We have all seen them since it was drawn."

"'N the lass was not here either," Que added as he picked up a rolled up heating pad where the girl's berth room had been.

"Besides, Ratbat's shell wasn't here, if it was them, his body would have been recovered as well," Ratchet added.

"If these are not them, then where are they?" Optimus asked in stunned surprise.

"I would guess safe," the green mech speculated.

"Aye, they probably couldn't comm any of us fer fear of bein' discuverred," the inventor guessed.

"It was Sentinel. It had to be. If it had been a Decepticon, Jolt could have alerted us about the plan on the Autobot frequencies."

"What? Why would he want to do this?" Ratchet asked in confusion as he motioned to the destruction.

"Because Faith Melody knew him for what he was. She had a telepathic encounter with him and told me not to trust him. I did not want to believe her.

"She called him 'hidey,'" he continued to muse aloud.

"Hidey! As in 'hidin'" Que supplied. "She was tellin' ya he's hidin' somethin'!" he finished as he ran toward the road and transformed on the run.

"The pillars!" Ratchet declared as he ran after the BMW and transformed, blaring his sirens as he went.

"What are you planning Sentinel?" Optimus wondered aloud as he turned and ran after his men, transforming mid-stride.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"Blackie! NO!" Faith Melody screamed as she dissolved into tears.

"Faith Melody! What is wrong?" Ratbat asked in fear as he rushed to her side.

"JOLT! Help! I don't know what is wrong with her," the cassetticon called frantically as he picked up the little girl and held her tightly to his chassis.

"Blackie!" she continued to cry as the resident medic scanned her.

"I don't believe it," the blue mech muttered. "Her energy readings are fluctuating erratically."

"What does that MEAN!" Ratbat demanded as he shifted his sister over the trash can where she proceeded to lose the contents of her stomach. He made soothing noises as she continued to cry hysterically, rubbing her back to try and still her shaking.

"She's half Cybertronian," the Autobot muttered aloud to himself, "and in a Cybertronian, this is a typical reaction . . ."

"To wha?" Skids demanded of the older mech.

"A broken spark-bond," Jolt finally answered. "I believe that the caretaker bond she shared with someone has been severed."

Looking up at the assembled, he sighed through his vents in defeat. "Ironhide has been offlined," he finished sadly.

"Ain' no way that'd evah happen!" Skids denied hotly. "He'd never let himself be offlined by no mean ro-bot!"

Ignoring his twin, Mudflap walked over to the child and began to gently stroke her back as she began to quiet to wracking sobs and laid down in the middle of the floor. "Shouldn' we get 'er some mo' Energon? She seems kinda tired."

"Yes. Ratbat, make her another Energon drink. One tablespoon of Energon to four ounces of white milk.

"The chocolate will irritate the lining of her stomach and make her vomit again. The lactic acid in the milk will help to settle her."

With one lingering stroke down her hair, he rushed over to the kitchen to prepare the nourishment.

Gathering the sparkling in his hands, Mudflap lifted her to his chassis and walked over to one of the mech sized chairs. Sitting down, he gently stroked down her back as he cooed to her quietly.

"Skids! Enough," he chastised his twin who had continued to rant and rave on the impossibility of Ironhide's death.

The green twin stopped at the seriousness of Mudflap's tone and looked at him. He had every intent of smacking the red twin around again when he saw their charge in his hands. Instantly, he realized his behavior was just making things harder on the child.

"I don't wanna believe it," he confessed to the junior medic as the Energon began to shimmer in his optics.

"Nor do I," Jolt also confessed as he laid a supportive hand on the younger mech's shoulder.

"You have to inform Soundwave of this discovery," the blue mech told the Decepticon as he returned with the Energon milk.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Soundwave shuddered where he sat at the sheer power of the disturbance on Faith Melody's side of their bond. Instinctively, he opened the bond fully and was overwhelmed with the strength with which she latched on to him. Studying the information he could glean from her side, he was alarmed at the way her energy levels were fluctuating so wildly.

The near instant questions from his other symbiotes in response to the sudden change in the child's energy levels all asked the same question he had; what had happened?

["Ratbat, what has happened to Faith Melody?"] he demanded over their bond.

["Jolt believes she suffered a broken caretaker's bond. She was crying and calling for the Autobots' weapons mech. He believes Ironhide has been offlined."]

Sparing a moment to monitor the channel Sentinel Prime used with Megatron, his spark sunk at the communique they shared.

["Status is confirmed. Sentinel Prime has offlined Autobot senior weapons officer; Ironhide. They have the command pillar. Rendezvous planned at Lincoln Memorial to begin transport of the rest of the bridge."]

["Oh dear.

["Jolt is concerned about the way her energy levels are fluctuating. We are giving her an excessive amount of Energon to try and combat it."]

["Acknowledged. I will attempt to regulate her energy levels from our end of the bond. Anyone else who has a bond with her should try and open it on their end and regulate her levels that way as well. Hopefully, it will offset the energy drain she experienced from the broken bond."] As he spoke, he recognized the presence of the rest of his cassettes flooding the girl's bonds, as well as two others through his daughter's side of the bond.

["I informed Jolt of your theory. Everyone at this location has opened their bonds as well. The rest of the bonds belong to the Autobots. Should we inform them?"]

["Negative. Sentinel Prime knows the Autobots' frequencies. If you tell them, you will be telling him he failed to offline her. I detected at least two other presences on her end of our bond when I felt the disturbance. We must allow them to inform the rest."]

["Should I tell Barricade?"]

Soundwave paused as he thought about that idea. Of all of the mechs in the Decepticon faction, he would have to say Barricade was the closest he would call to a friend. Plus, he showed genuine concern for his daughter.

["Yes. Inform Barricade. Use your bond with him; Megatron and Starscream both monitor common Decepticon channels. I do not have any more than the short range private comm channel with him."]

["I informed him. He is not happy about either fact that Sentinel Prime tried to offline her or that she suffered her first bond-break. He is also concerned that any offlining of any of the Autobots may cause even more damage to her."]

["Probable.

["Once we have begun the next phase of the plan, I will meet with him to try and formulate a solution to the problem.

["Keep me informed about Faith Melody, and Ratbat?"]

["Yes Creator?"]

In response, the spymaster sent a burst of warmth to his creation's end of the bond. A burst of warmth and gratitude flowed back in response.

**A/N2:**_ Just a little explanation about why there is a special demarcation for bond talk in this chapter when there isn't in previous chapters; Simply put, there are too many types of dialogue in this chapter. So, whenever the characters go between two or more ways of communicating with each other, they will be separated like this: "General talking," {"Comm talk,"} ["Bond talk."] Hope it makes sense. As always let me know how to make it easier for you to understand. Tracy_


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N:**_ Here is another chapter. Hope you enjoy it. As always please let me know what I did wrong, right or need to expand on. Tracy_

"Talking out loud."

{"Comm talk."}

["Bond talk."]

-Chapter 13-

Faith Melody did not like the way she felt. She was lying on her berth and whimpering at the general icky feeling; her head hurt, her eyes hurt, her belly hurt, her throat was sore, there were buzzy sounds in her ears and her whole body felt heavy and tingly. On top of everything else, she couldn't feel Blackie anymore. It was like the piece of her spark that had him in it was just gone.

And she didn't care what Jolt or Ratchet thought, she knew she had a spark 'cause her daddy told her she did.

She didn't want to get up, just stay in her berth and cry until Blackie came back . . . she chose to ignore the fact he wouldn't.

After what seemed like the longest time of lying around, her bladder determined it was time to get up. Heaving a shuttering sigh, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and promptly fell over. Faith Melody whimpered again as the room spun in front of her. Once it seemed to stop moving quite as much, she tried to sit up again. The second attempt proved more successful when she propped her hands on either side of her. She sat still and panted heavily as the world continued to spin. Sobbing again, the girl wiggled off her berth and clutched tightly at the mattress as the room both spun and became fuzzy. Frightened, she reached through her bond to her daddy; she didn't like this feeling and she knew her daddy would make it go away. The warmth she felt come back to her brought the room back into focus and slowed down the sickening, spinning sensation, but she still felt terrible. Desperately, she clung to her daddy's warmth as she began to walk across the room.

A pain filled cry escaped her as she sunk to the floor and clutched at her head; that step felt like it had exploded in her skull. The flare of warmth and concern from all of her bonds soothed her, a little, but still didn't make the icky feeling go away. The buzzing sound in her ears had gotten so loud, she didn't realize exactly how loud she was crying, or even hear the sounds of pedes running towards her. She was oblivious to the others as they crowded around her until she felt Ratbat's familiar arms wrap around her. She clung to him in fear and desperation with one arm as she clutched her head with the other. As she felt herself be lifted and carried, the child became aware of a strange, scary numbness slowly moving across her body. Instinctively, she fought it as she frantically latched on to her bonds.

["Daddy! The Emptiness is after me!"] she screamed through her bonds before she was consumed with her own fight. Faith Melody didn't notice the surprise, shock and pride that had slipped through from Soundwave's end before he had the chance to shield it.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"Jolt! What is wrong with her?" Ratbat asked of the young medic as he frantically scanned the crying child.

"I don't know!" he finally shouted in his own frustration. "Her overall energy readings are normal, but her blood vessels are expanded going into her brain, her pain receptors are firing sporadically and her heart is beating excessively fast.

"This isn't normal for either humans or Cybertronians. I simply don't know why she is crying!"

In exasperation, he scanned her again; the stranglehold she had on her bond with him making him feel clumsy and desperate. Even his attempts to shield their bond so he could concentrate was met with surprising resistance. He simply couldn't focus on treating her when the caretaker bond he had with her was running in the front of his processor. Idly, he said a silent prayer to Primus for help in repairing whatever was wrong with the femmeling. He was most definitely surprised by the way it was answered.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

As soon as Ratbat had informed him of the Autobots' weapons officer's offlining, and the sparkling's reaction to it, he pulled an illegal u-turn and sped back to the quarters he had left. He just hoped he was in time to help.

When he got to the garage doors of the building, he revved his engine loudly and honked his horn until somebody finally opened them for him. distractedly, he noted that they were really going to have to get an automatic opener for the thing.

As soon as he could squeeze through without scraping his sides, he gunned it and squealed his tires before they caught and propelled him forward.

"Where is she?" he demanded as soon as he was inside and had transformed.

"She's lubricatin'," Mudflap answered from behind him as he manually closed the doors.

"What chu doin' back?" Skids asked suspiciously.

"Ratbat informed me of the sparkling's status," he answered distractedly as he rushed toward the organic half of the building.

"We tend to our own," Skids insisted as he made to block the shock troop. "We don' need no fraggin' 'Con messin' wit' our femme."

The sound of metal hitting metal rang throughout the space just before the green twin landed in a sprawling heap against a support pillar to the right.

Cycling air noisily through his intakes, Barricade leveled a threatening glare at the obnoxious youngling. "You will NOT use such language around the sparkling," he threatened in a low and menacing voice. "Unless you want something more permanent than a backhand.

"What symptoms has she presented with after the initial shock?" he directed to the medic.

"What kind of symptoms?" Jolt asked as he checked over Skids' cheek plate. "Besides, why do you want to know?"

The Saleen cycled a vent in frustration at the round of twenty questions. "Before the war," he answered slowly through gritted dentas, "I was a bond patch for orphaned sparklings in Kaon.

"Now, what sort of emotional or psychological symptoms has she shown?"

Jolt stared at him in new found respect and dawning understanding when Mudflap, after deciding his twin would be alright, interrupted.

"What's a 'bond patch'?"

"It's a mech or femme who is specially trained to form temporary bonds with those individuals who tragically and suddenly lost important bonds," the blue mech supplied.

"Oh," Mudflap answered before he turned to the 'Con.

"She's 'fraid a somethin'. Don' know what, 'cept she's got 'bout a death grip on her end a our bond."

"Mudflap!" Skids chastised his twin. "Don' tel him nothin'!"

"Chill bro! Faif Mel'dy ain't been fooled yet, 'n she likes him."

"She also appears to be suffering from low-spectrum tinnitus as well as balance issues," Jolt finally answered when the twins had stopped talking.

"She informed Soundwave, through words, over their bond," Ratbat supplied as he led an incredibly wobbly child out of the bathroom, "That 'the Emptiness' was after her.

"Up until now, she has only ever been able to express emotions and impressions over her bonds."

Nodding sharply, Barricade knelt in front of the cassette and child as he offered his hand. "Faith Melody? Do you remember me?"

He watched her blink to clear the fluid from her optics before letting go of Ratbat with one hand to wipe them. He did not fail to notice how closely she came to falling over if the small mech hadn't quickly caught her.

"Daddy brung you," she answered in between sobs. "Bare cade?"

"Yes, sweet spark," he chuckled, "my name is Barricade. You may call me 'Cade' if it is easier.

"May I see you for a little while?"

"You won't leave?" she begged of her brother as she grabbed hold of his other hand.

"Of course not tschelgen," he promised as he pulled her into his chassis and wrapped his arms around her.

["Open your bond fully with her, then put her in my hand,"] the police car told the cassetticon through their bond.

Ratbat murmured quietly to his sister as he picked her up and placed her on the larger mech's hand. When he let her go, she issued an audial deafening shriek and began to reach for her brother in desperation.

"Ratbat! Don't let me go! Ratbat!"

"Feel him with your spark," Barricade soothed as he quickly pulled her to his chassis.

Even though her mournful sobs broke his spark, a lifetime as a bond patch told him it was necessary to her total well-being.

"Hush now, Faith Melody," he crooned as he moved her across his hand so she was close to his spark.

["Tell everyone else to reduce their connection to her by half; it will frighten her, but it won't hurt her,"] he informed the cassette as he continued to soothe the crying child.

["But you just said . . ."]

["I know. That was to reduce her stress when you handed her to me. Now, I need her to form a bond with me, and I can't do that with her so entrenched in her current bonds."]

The black and white mech felt the concern from the small mech as he grudgingly complied with the request. He knew the moment when she "lost" her connections by the terrified shriek and frantic surge of, surprisingly powerful, spark energy. Seizing his chance, he latched on with his own energy and was pleased when she strengthened the new bond like it was her lifeline.

"You can open your bonds back up," he told the room at large. "Try to get her into recharge."

Soon enough, the little girl fell into a deep and exhausted slumber, the combination of the energy fluctuations, physical and emotional strain taking their toll on her. Barricade watched in fascination as the child clutched tightly onto the bars of his brush guard as she slept. With a shuddering sigh, her fingers relaxed and her hand fell away as she rolled onto her other side.

{"What was wrong with her?"} Jolt comm'd the Decepticon in desperate relief as he felt the girl's grip on their bond relax.

{"She was suffering from a-symmetrical energy distribution. It is common with sparklings that have just experienced a traumatic bond-break."}

{"A-what?"} Mudflap asked in confusion.

{"A-symmetrical energy distribution,"} Barricade repeated. {"In essence, her energy pattern, or spark, was trying to heal the rift left when her caretaker was offlined. Given her age, she was trying to protect the place where she felt him in the naïve hope he would return to refill it.

{"That was the 'Emptiness' she was afraid of; she was getting used to no longer feeling him and the pain was starting to lessen. She simply misinterpreted the feeling of numbness as emptiness."}

{"Will she be alright?"} Ratbat asked as he bounced in front of the mech.

{"Most likely,"} the black and white answered.

"Don't you have somewhere ta be?" Skids asked quietly. He'd be slagged if he would share a comm link with that 'Con.

"I will remain until she awakens. It would cause more harm than good if I were to simply disappear after forming a bond with her; she may very well think it was all a dream and her caretaker was still around. It is healthier for her to remember and grieve so that she can move on."

A hastily silenced cry followed by a crunch of metal against stone had everyone looking up in confusion.

"Don't you dare!" Jolt said quietly as he held Skids by the neck struts up against the wall. "You will NOT awaken Faith Melody just to hurry Barricade on his way. She needs her rest; her body and energy levels have to regulate themselves naturally and the quickest way for that to happen is by recharging."

The blue medic dropped the green twin, unceremoniously, in a heap at his pedes. Sparing a quick scan to make sure he hadn't actually been hurt, Jolt turned his back on the gaping mech and sat on the single chair at a ninety degree angle to the mech sized couch the shock troop was occupying.

Looking at his twin with a disappointed glare, Mudflap watched in silence as Skids stood up and stomped to their room. Venting in exasperation, the red twin joined Barricade sitting on the couch as he watched his charge curled up in the clawed hand. "It isn't a temporary bond with her, is it," he observed to the battle scarred mech.

Barricade chose not to answer.

**A/N2:**_ Just some clarification – In this story, Barricade is the Cybertronian equivalent of a child psychologist. I thought that a background in mental health for him would explain the great deal of fan-fics that depict him as the Decepticon's ace interrogator. - Jolt may be acting a little bit OOC here, but that is because he has never experienced a caretaker's bond from the adult's perspective before. He, quite frankly, was thrown by how strong it could be._


	15. Chapter 14

_**Disclaimer:**__ Bose is a registered trademark of Bose Corp. No infringement is implied or intended. No financial gain has been received. _

- Chapter 14 -

Skids was pacing furiously in the limited space the apartment provided. Every "thud," "crash," "bang" and explosion near the building had him whirling in its direction and aiming his weapons. He glanced over at his twin who was calmly sitting with their charge as she frantically colored pictures. Mudflap made certain he was between the girl and the most likely direction of potential attack, not to mention he was blocking the sparkling's view of his agitated twin.

["How can you be so calm?"] Skids finally demanded of his twin over their bond.

["She needs me to be,"] was his simple response. Opening his bond a little further, he gave his brother a glimpse of the true chaos that churned through his spark. ["'Sides,"] Mudflap continued, ["I kinda like bein' the cool one. You go righ' ahead an' be the agitated one. Suits tha new black armor ya got."]

With a huff through his vents, he collapsed on the mech sized chair opposite the newly maroon armored medic and watched in irritation as Jolt thoroughly and efficiently checked each of his weapons. "So why'd you chose that alt?" he finally asked in an effort to distract himself.

"I chose the Chevrolet Cruze because it is the only one hundred percent gasoline powered vehicle to get over forty miles per gallon.

"Why did you chose the Chevrolet Spark for your new alt?"

"Cause it was the only one aroun' that would fit," he answered huffily as he pushed himself up and began to pace again.

"Gah!" the black twin finally ex-vented and whirled around to face his superior. "Why ain't we out there with our team?" he demanded.

"Our orders are quite clear; protect Faith Melody at all cost.

"I know that you do not trust Barricade, but in this instance, I believe his assessment is correct; if she suffers another bond-break of the magnitude of Ironhide's, it could prove permanently damaging to her psychological and physiological well-being.

"I'm sorry, Skids, but we must stay here until the battle is decided."

"What if we stay here and the battle is decided in Megatron's favor?" Ratbat asked from the doorway to the kitchen.

"Yeah!" Skids was quick to agree. "Ol' Megsey ain't gonna care 'bout Faith Mel'dy's bonds no-how! All's he's gonna see is we's Autobots."

"In that case, we will have to trust that Soundwave will find a way to get us out."

"Laserbeak?" the sound of the little girl's confused voice interrupted the conversation. The group of mechs all watched in curiosity as she rubbed at her chest with one hand and pulled off the Bose headphones she had been wearing with the other. Her brows were drawn together in a scowl of concentration as she let out a worried yelp and ran toward the window as the sound of a large gun fired above them. "Laserbeak!" she cried as she opened the curtain to look outside worriedly.

"What's wrong?" Jolt asked Ratbat as the cassetticon rested his hand over his spark.

"It's Laserbeak," he started cautiously. "He's been injured."

"Can you determine how bad?" the medic continued as he scanned his charge.

"He's been decapitated," the small mech said as he snapped back to the present and rushed to his sister's side.

The news that the small mech had merely been relieved of his head had the Cruze sighing in relief. Unlike humans, Cybertronians could survive without their heads for quite a while, that is, unless something were to also puncture their spark chambers, or they were already low on Energon to start with.

"He's over there!" Faith Melody cried out as Skids gently tugged her back from the window. "I seen him! I hafta go get my brover!" she yelled in a near panic as she fought against the black twin.

"Enough!" the subject twin finally got her attention.

"If you go out there, the 'Con's'll flatten you," Skids told her as he cradled her gently against his chassis. "All's they'll see is a human. They won' even believe you might be impotent to anyone other than a human. They's don' know you're special to Soundwave, and they wouldn' believe it anyway."

"But he's hurt! I hafta help my brover!"

"Reach fo' his spark. Do you still feel 'im?"

Huffing an irritated sigh, she got a far off look on her face as she seemed to do what Skids had told her to do. "I still feel him, but its fuzzy. He's hurt!"

"He will be alright for a while," Jolt reassured her as he ran a soothing finger down her back.

"Not if someone steps on him 'cause he's too hurt to get outta da way," she told them stubbornly.

"I will go get him," Ratbat decided as he removed the apron from his frame. With sure steps, he walked over to the other side of the apartment where the garage was and opened the wide doors. Quickly, he hooked a trailer up to a small ATV quad and climbed aboard before he kicked it started.

"Will you come back?" the child asked with a tremor in her voice.

"Of course!" he reassured as he gently wiped the tears from her cheeks. "With Laserbeak in tow," he promised as he put the vehicle in gear and headed for the exterior door.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Soundwave met Barricade's optics from across the clearing. They were both perfectly content to take the Autobots as prisoners; they could prove to be valuable bargaining chips if this latest campaign didn't go in Megatron's favor, especially the medic. If it wasn't for the interference of that retched insect, Dylan Gould, they both would have assigned some of the less intelligent mechs as guards and been done with it.

"Prisoners? We're taking prisoners now?

"No, before, this was business, now it's personal.

"Do you understand?" the pathetic human asked with a smug look on his face as he looked up at him.

Laughing at the audacity of the insect that actually believed he had some sort of power over him, as if the fleshy actually had some standing _over_ him?

"Yes, I understand," Soundwave chuckled in disbelief. "No prisoners, only trophies."

Unfortunately, one of the not too smart mechs took his response to be affirmation, and grabbed up the inventor to frog march him into the center of the clearing.

Oh slag! Soundwave thought just before another one of their not too smart mechs took aim at the inventor and fired.

["Faith Melody!"] he quickly sent over the bond to his daughter as he watched with incredulity as Barricade then finished the mech with his own shot.

He opened his bond with his daughter fully to try and protect her from the full brunt of the Autobot's offlining. It was when he only felt an odd sort of softening from her end that he quickly comm'd Barricade.

{"What is going on?"} he asked of the shock troop as he discretely scanned the downed mech. The inventor was still online!

A quick analysis of his scan results showed the inventor had been hit with the Cybertronian equivalent of a blank. It produced a lot of fire and enough force to let the recipient know he'd been hit, but it wouldn't penetrate a spark chamber. True, he was decapitated, but his spark still had its cohesion. With timely medical treatment, he would survive.

{"I will have Ratbat bring the medic when the area is clear,"} the Saleen informed as he heard an odd disturbance approaching from somewhere above them.

The expectant looks of the other mechs toward him had the spymaster sighing through his vents in resignation. Roughly, he grabbed the youngest Autobot, Bumblebee, by the shoulder strut and hauled him to his feet.

"You're next," he snarled, more angry at the stupid human for forcing his hand than at the young scout.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Bumblebee watched his best friend and former caretaker's body fall under the assault of Barricade's weapon. In desperation, he uttered a mournful cry from his damaged vocal processors as he tried to go to his fallen comrade. Uncaringly, the mech behind him grabbed him by the hands and forced him to remain in his position.

Glancing up, he saw his Sam hiding inside of an overturned vehicle. As badly as he felt, he just couldn't leave his human without saying, "Goodbye." Resigning himself to his fate, he played one final clip for his friend, "We gave 'em one hell of a run."

Numbly, he watched Sam shed a tear as the futility of the situation finally registered with the young human. He offered a token struggle as the 'Con pulled him up by the shoulder strut and shoved him over Que's body. Longingly, he passed a scan over his downed friend, collapsing in his shock at the results.

He clasped at the mech's armor in relief, thankful that the 'Con's would think his actions were out of grief. {"Ratchet! He's alive! Somehow, he survived!"} the young scout crowed through the comm.

{"What?! Alright, don't let them realize or they'll finish him off.

{"Something's going on here,"} the medic finished with a mumble.

{"Faith Melody,"} the monotone voice of Soundwave answered over their shared comm.

Grimly, the spymaster leveled his weapon at the back of his helm. He heard the slowly charging power cells of the rifle gaining the standard, high-pitched whine of full power before another sound caught his audials. Looking up, he saw the ship weaving its way drunkenly through the sky as it continued to drop its load. Seizing his chance, he jumped up and began to fight with Soundwave. Idly, he hoped that the spymaster's symbiotes were all out.

{"They're out, do it!"} he heard Soundwave through his com.

{"This is going to hurt,"} Bumblebee warned before he put his own plasma gun under the chest armor of the 'Con and pulled the trigger, the barely charged load making a great deal of noise and enough fire to hide the lack of damage.

Turning around to face his next opponent, he spared a quick scan for Faith Melody's mech creator and was pleased to note he was in emergency stasis and sustained minor injuries, but otherwise unhurt.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Barricade watched in shock as the Autobug landed a standard fatal blow to Soundwave's chassis. What was that fool thinking? Didn't he know what was going to happen to Faith Melody now? Desperately, he scanned the spymaster and said a quick prayer of thanks that he was still online. Still, he was in danger of becoming critical very easily if he didn't get immediate medical assistance, and the Autobot CMO couldn't perform it without arising suspicion.

Issuing the order to retreat, he left the fallen mechs where they landed and allowed the Autobots the small victory. As he ran, he informed Ratbat through their bond about what had happened, and told him to bring Jolt and one of the others with him to the coordinates of the clearing. He just hoped they were in time to save the sparkling's family.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

The sound of the fire alarm beeping frantically is what roused Skids with a start. Already bringing his weapon to bear, he scanned his surroundings to make sure there weren't any 'Con's sneaking in. Seeing it was all clear, he rushed to the kitchen where he could see the smoke billowing out from the toaster. Quickly, he pulled the appliance out of the plug and threw it into the sink where he drowned it with the spigot. As the machine hissed under the assault of the water, he heard the tell-tale sound of popping coming from the microwave.

"Yo! Faith Mel'dy! Was yous hungry?" he called as he gently opened the door and removed the hot bag once it beeped.

The only response was the sound of metal being smacked around in the automatic vacuum as the sparkless drone tried to continue its path around the living room. Shrugging at the machine, he gently opened the popcorn bag and dumped it into a bowl to cool somewhat so his charge wouldn't burn herself when she ate it.

As his processors kicked into more advanced functions, he began to realize the apartment seemed to be extra quiet. Shrugging it off as the probability she had fallen into recharge while sitting with Laserbeak, he picked up the bowl of popcorn with one hand and started walking toward the garage. He rescued the pennies from the futile cleaning attempt of the vacuum and set it back down to go about its purpose on his way.

Before the popcorn hit the floor, Skids was already transforming and racing to the exit; Faith Melody was gone.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

The sound of the four wheeler would have seemed out of place on the street in front of Trump Tower, if not for the louder sounds of the war waging over the Chicago skies. Faith Melody ignored it all as she focused intently on her self-appointed mission of helping her family.

Resolutely, she went as fast as she could along the route she saw Jolt and Mudflap go until they were out of her sight. Once she had passed the point where she lost sight of them, she slowed down and stopped at the first intersection; she knew she wasn't going to be able to follow their trail, but she had learned that she could always find them with her spark. Getting off her ATV, the child walked away from Laserbeak and into the middle of the intersection, then, feeling along her bonds, she determined where each member of her family was. Once she determined the direction that felt the strongest for her Daddy, Que, Ratbat, Jolt and Mudflap, she ran back to her transport and pointed it in that general direction. She was so intent on her destination, she failed to notice the large shadow that had fallen over her until she was plucked from her seat and quickly lifted away.

She squealed her surprise as the mech lifted and turned her to face him. Once she saw the familiar optics of the one who held her, she growled her displeasure.

**A/N:**_ I had started writing the next part, then realized it would end up making the chapter immense. So, I stopped it here. As always, let me know what I need to work on. Tracy_


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N:**_ Alright! So, we're almost done. Have maybe this one plus two more chapters and an epilogue. As always, I hope you enjoy this next installment, and help me to provide you with a better product by letting me know how to improve. Tracy _

_And the mech who caught Faith Melody is . . ._

-Chapter 15-

Megatron held the very familiar sparkling by the back of her coverings, what the humans called, "overalls," as he studied her. He watched in amusement as she idly kicked downward and growled, crossing her arms across her chassis as he held her in front of his optics.

"Faith Melody? What are you doing here?" he demanded of the child.

"I hafta help my daddy! He's hurt. He feels all fuzzy in my spark," she answered.

"What? Are you saying you have a spark-bond with your mech creator?" he asked incredulously.

She nodded emphatically as she tried to stretch her tiny legs downward again. "Please Megertawn? Please let me down so I can help my daddy?" she begged as she clasped her hands in front of her in supplication. Briefly, he wondered where she had learned that gesture.

"This is no place for a sparkling," he informed her. "This is a war zone for Primus sake!"

"Please? Let me down so I can help my family? Please fragger Megertawn?"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?" he demanded as he brought the femmeling even closer to his optics.

Megatron watched the child's eyes grow large and begin to shimmer with moisture as she looked at him in fear and confusion.

"Starscheme said," she started quickly," that it's not a bad word when used 'front a a name."

Well that would explain it. He felt his anger for the child dissolve and be replaced with amusement.

"He said," she continued, her words tripping over each other in her effort to get them out fast enough, "that it's a term of 'dearment when 'front a a name."

"Starscream is a liar," he told her bluntly. "The next time you hear him say something you know is wrong, ask another adult about it. That word is not an endearment. In fact, it is an insult."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know he was fibbing."

"I know, that is why I will not punish you.

"But I still cannot allow you to go running around all alone."

"I'm not alone! See? Laserbeak is with me."

"He's also in pieces. You need a functional guardian. Where is your caretaker?"

"I runned away from him so I could help my family. Please Megertawn? Let me go help 'em?"

Running an experienced optic over the bird mech, he realized the wounds were not critical, but they needed to be addressed.

Reaching up, he caught one of the numerous scalpels that was crawling over his helm in an attempt to repair the damage and placed it on the injured mech. Watching it for a moment, he saw it start to work on the more severe injuries. At the rate it was going, it would have taken the drone several hours to finish, so he caught two more of the little workers and added them to the downed infiltration expert.

"The scalpels will repair him within an hour," he assured the child as he brought her to his chassis. "Once he is online, he will be your caretaker until your creator has been repaired. I will allow them to go with him to help."

"An _hour_! But that's _forever_!

"Why can't 'Cade take me to my daddy? Ratbat said he's the one who told him that daddy got hurt."

"You know Barricade?"

"Yeah, daddy brunged him to meet me. He's my new friend."

Considering the child for a moment, he sent a com to his shock troop and was pleased at the response.

"He is on his way," he assured the child as he wearily sat down against a building.

"Are you okay?" the child asked with sincere concern.

Megatron smiled a genuine, grateful smile at the innocent sparkling. "I am merely tired, young one," he reassured as he rubbed a gentle finger down her back.

"You should get some recharge," she counseled seriously.

The ancient feeling mech chuckled; he found such honest, innocent worry to be endearing. "When Cybertron is safe," he promised as he glanced up at the approaching mech.

"It appears your temporary guardian is here," he informed the child as he lowered her to the ground. "Go on now, help your family," he told her, as he made a lazy 'shoo'ing motion with his hand. "I have informed my mechs you are not to be harmed.

"Barricade, I trust you will see the sparkling safely to her mech creator?"

At the Mustang's nod, he continued; "Do you know who her caretaker is that allowed her to come out into a WAR ZONE unsupervised?"

"My understanding is that Soundwave has a relationship with the human; Dylan Gould. I also know that he has acquired two floors in the same building that human is now based out of. . . it is entirely possible he arranged something with the insect.

{"I have recently learned that one of these employees,"} the front liner continued over a private com, {"was responsible for terrorizing the sparkling. She was tasked to act as Faith Melody's temporary caretaker when Ratbat needed to come to me for his energy requirements when Soundwave was unavailable. Soundwave disposed of her as soon as he learned of the travesty."}

{"It seems that our . . . arrangement with the human should be reexamined once the war is over."}

"Yes, Lord Megatron."

Megatron chuckled, his attention following the progress of the organic sparkling as she drove her vehicle on her way. "It would appear that the femmeling is rather impatient."

"Oh, sl – lug!" Barricade exclaimed as he rushed after the child.

He stared after the girl until the buildings blocked his view, a dreamy expression crossing his optics. He didn't notice the blonde, human audience that had watched his interaction with the child.

Wearily, he tugged the cowling from his head as he rested his helm against the building behind him. Allowing his vision to be filled with his rapidly appearing home world, he felt hope filling his spark.

"Cybertron! You are safe," he whispered in wonder.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"C'mon Faith Melody," Barricade ordered as he transformed into his alt. "Get in and I'll take you to Soundwave."

"I can't leave my brover!" she told him resolutely.

"Oh for Primus' sake child! It is dangerous to go so slowly."

"But I need to take the s'plies to Jolt! He might need 'em to fix daddy or Que."

Before the police cruiser could respond, a flurry of black armor flipped over the ATV as they reached for the child who instinctively ducked out of the way. The mech landed on his back and rolled to his feet, only to fall over a pile of rubble and land flat on his aft in front of an already transformed and armed Decepticon.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence on the street as Barricade stared in confusion, and some humor at the flummoxed Autobot as he looked up at him sheepishly.

"Skids!" Faith Melody cried happily as she ran at the startled mech.

Clumsily, he caught her and pulled her protectively closer to his chassis.

"Faith Mel'dy! Why'd you run off like that?" he scolded in relief as he nuzzled her with his chin.

"I had to get to daddy 'n Que! They're hurt!"

"I assume you were left as her caretaker when Ratbat and Jolt left?" Barricade asked with narrowed optics.

"Please don' be mad at Skids, 'Cade? I trickeded him. Honest! He tooked good care a me."

"And how did you trick him?" the Saleen asked in honest curiosity. He had every confidence that she could actually outsmart the mech, he just wanted to know how she had done it.

He watched in amusement as she looked guiltily up at him before she took a deep breath and started her confession.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Jolt stood up straight and stretched out his spinal strut. He had just spent the last several hours reconnecting and replacing all of the damaged major Energon lines in Que's chassis. As Barricade had informed them, the inventor had been shot twice by two different weapons; the first one doing the most damage while the second one did less, but looked like it had done more, judging by the scorch marks.

Running a scan over his patient, he was pleased to see he was stable, for now, so he turned to tend to his next patient; Soundwave. Watching Ratbat scuttle all over his mech creator's chest plates, he ran another scan over his work and was impressed at its quality.

"It looks like you got all of his major Energon lines repaired or replaced. That's good. However, it appears that his pump has sustained damage; it is running at seventy-nine percent efficiency. For his body type and purpose, it needs to run at at least eighty-eight percent efficiency to provide for both himself and his symbiotes. I can stabilize it enough to sustain himself with what I have here, but it may take quite awhile before it will be running at an optimal output to host."

Ratbat nodded in distraction as he reached in to remove a piece of debris that was lodged close to the Mercedes' spark. Pulling it out, he felt a tiny sliver of concern for his sister when he noticed it was her Fred doll.

"We's got comp'ny!" Mudflap called out from his post beside the entrance.

Immediately, all external communication stopped; the only noise was an occasional, metallic clunk from the repairs the medic continued to perform on the downed spymaster.

"YO! MUDFLAP! WHERE'S YOUS AT?" they heard the distinct voice of Skids yell from around the corner.

"Oh slag!" Jolt muttered as he was already reaching to clamp off the cassetticon's work.

"Faith Melody!" Ratbat exclaimed as he quickly clambered off his creator's chest to find out about his sister.

Jolt's sensitive audials picked up the distinct sound of Skids' helm armor being smacked with something metal.

"Shh! Megertawn said the 'Cep-i-cons won't hurt me, but that don' mean they won't hurt you," he paused in his work as he felt the Energon freeze in his lines. That was definitely Faith Melody.

"She's right you bolt-head!" the voice of Barricade added. If Jolt was a betting mech, he'd say the 'Con had probably smacked the dolt upside his head when he had yelled.

"Yo! Man? This is combat! What you yellin' for?" he heard Mudflap angrily chastise his twin in a conversational tone.

"And you, little sister," Ratbat addressed the human child sternly, "how did you get here?"

"I drived?" the little girl replied sweetly. The medic just knew she was giving him her 'I'm too cute to be in trouble,' look.

"See? I brunged Laserbeak and the s'plies," she added as the sound of the ATV's engine made its way inside the building. "And Megertawn sent three scalpels to help!"

{"Did she say scalpels?"} Jolt comm'd the small mech as he continued to work on Soundwave.

{"Yes. Why?"}

{"As soon as one of them is done with Laserbeak, bring it over here."}

When Ratbat acknowledged, he turned a brief com to the shock troop. {"Barricade? Do scalpels know the difference between Autobots and Decepticons?"}

{"No. They're drones. All they know is they need to repair whatever, or whoever, is damaged that they can get to.

{"Of course, there's no telling if Megatron had them reprogrammed or not. I wouldn't put it past him to have them programmed to dismantle any Autobot they come across for spare parts."}

{"That's what I'm concerned about. Until Ratchet gets here, I could really use some more help, so I'm going to have them set to work on Soundwave here and I'll go back to Que."}

{"Acknowledged.

{"I'm going to set up an external perimeter to try and keep the Decepticons away from you. Skids can help Mudflap with the entrance. That way, if the Autobots do win, I'll be able to get out of here before I end up lying right there with them."}

{"Alright. Thank you Barricade."}

Muttering to himself, he concentrated on the task at hand; for some inexplicable reason, the knowledge that Barricade was providing them with a first line of defense eased his processor. He wasn't going to look too closely at why.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"Ugh! It feels like someone used my head as a human kick ball," Laserbeak groaned as he slowly came back online. His unfortunate lisp becoming incredibly pronounced due to his exhaustion.

"You're alright now Laserbeak," Faith Melody whispered as he felt her patting his neck. "Jolt an' the scalpels fixed you. You should be recharging though. I'll protect you."

"Where are we?" he asked as he brought his optics online and looked around.

"Jolt calls it a 'mergency field hostipol. Don' worry. We're safe; 'Cade is watching outside an' Skids an' Mudflap are watching from inside.

"You need Energon?" she suddenly asked.

"Ratbat!" she yelled at her other brother. "Laserbeak's online an' needs some Energon!"

"Please stop yelling," he begged as her volume hurt his audials.

"What happened anyway?" he continued as she murmured her apologies and kissed his beak.

"You got hurt. Ratbat called it 'capitated. Anyway, the scalpels had to put your head back on. Jolt was gonna do it, but 'Cade called and said daddy and Que were hurt before he could. So, I was brunging you to Jolt . . ."

"'Bringing'," he automatically corrected.

"Bringing you to Jolt when Megertawn catched me . . ."

"'Caught,' Megatron caught you?" he asked with some alarm.

"Okay, Megertawn _caught_ me and said I wasn't 'lowed out by myself, so he gave you three of his scalpels and was gonna let you be my caretaker, but it was gonna take _forever_ to fix you, and I didn't want daddy or Que to wait and maybe go away like Blackie did, so I asked him if 'Cade could take me to daddy, and he said 'okay,' and then 'Cade came and brung me to them."

"'Brought,'" Laserbeak corrected.

He ignored her irritated huff at the correction when he caught the feeling of utter terror that flooded her end of their bond. Looking closer at her, he noticed the tear tracks down her cheeks as she kept herself busy, avoiding looking at him.

"Faith Melody, what is wrong?" he asked gently.

"Darn Jolt's bein' mean to me," she grumbled.

"He is not being mean, Faith Melody," Ratbat patiently informed as he brought Energon for both Laserbeak and her.

"Jolt won't allow her to see either Soundwave or Que yet," he explained to the bird mech as he directly filled the other's tanks.

"And he can't let you see either until he's done repairing them. Some of the procedures may be frightening to watch," he finished to the frightened child as she sulked against Laserbeak's body. He sighed in frustration as he tried to stroke his sister's hair, only to be met with an angry grunt as she smacked his hand away.

"Faith Melody," Laserbeak addressed as he covered her with his wing. "I probably should get some recharge, but I just can't seem to without my favorite snuggle sister."

The child gave an exaggerated sigh as she downed her Energon milk and handed the container to Ratbat. She lay down next to the bird and used her hand as a pillow as he pulled her closer to his chassis and covered her with his wing.

After a few moments, the little girl gave a shuddering sigh and began to trace along the seams of his chest armor.

"What is it Faith Melody?" he asked sleepily.

"Why'd Blackie leave me?" she finally asked. "Did I do something to send him away?"

"NO! Absolutely not!" Laserbeak quickly reassured, instantly alert. "He didn't want to go away Faith Melody. He was taken away."

"That means Sent'nel did it. Huh?"

"Yes."

"I hope Op'mus sends him away where Blackie can kick his aft all over the place," she said with great vehemence.

"That is a bad thing to say," he informed with an indulgent chuckle.

"Will Daddy and Que go away too?"

"No. Jolt and the scalpels will help them until Ratchet can come to help. They won't go away any more than I did," he said.

"Promise?"

"As much as I can," he whispered as he felt her finally relax into recharge. "As much as I can." With that final whisper, he wrapped his neck around his sister's thin shoulders and allowed himself to follow.


	17. Chapter 16

**A/U: **_ Wasn't really happy with the way this one turned out, but I'm glad I finally got everyone into their positions. As always, let me know where it needs to be improved so that I can try and make the next chapter better. Tracy_

{"Comm speech."}

^"Thought."^

"Verbal speech."

-Chapter 16-

"And any minute now, you're just going to be Sentinel's bitch," the human femme told him.

Infuriated, he leaned over the insect threateningly, the exhaust from his vents hot on her head. How dare she? He was the leader of the Decepticons! The victory would be theirs, and he was the only leader. At a mere suggestion, _any_ of his mechs would gladly take out the former Autobot prime.

But, that was what she was getting at, wasn't it? His mechs would see it as a weakness that he would have them take out a rival. He wasn't weak! And he knew the former prime well enough to know that was exactly how he would spin it.

Megatron halted his hand from skewering the insect. It would be easy enough to find and destroy the femme once the planet had been secured. First, he had to take care of his so-called partner.

With a final growl, he nimbly leapt to his pedes and raced in the direction of Sentinel Prime, un-subspacing his rifle as he went.

As he rounded the building, his optics focused solely on his adversary. The true reason he even started this war in the first place. It didn't matter who surrounded him, or what he was doing, the self-righteous, pompous, bigoted aft would not take his planet! He had worked too hard for too long to let someone else lay claim to his victory.

He watched with glee as the armor exploded from the red mech's back, barely registering the kickback from his weapon as it discharged. With a roar, he fired another round as the fallen prime started to turn toward him in surprise.

"Megatron? No!" he suddenly heard Sentinel speaking.

He ignored it, along with all of the other drivel that spewed from the liar's mouth.

This was his planet! He did not spend millenia trapped within its frozen wastelands and enduring the excruciating torture inflicted by the insects to just give it up. No!

"We need a truce!" the pathetic traitor frantically tried to reason. It was not until the mech began to crawl away from him that Megatron was satisfied.

"What would you be without me, Prime?" he asked with a sneer over his shoulder. After all, if he hadn't come after the former prime, his brother would have been dead.

"Time to find out," Optimus stated with grim determination.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Bumblebee watched in some amazement as his Sam hit the Dylan human with something that forced him back into the control pillar. The older human's body jolted in an erratic dance as the power surged through his frame before he fell limply to the ground, dead.

"The bridge is still connected!" he heard Ratchet shout as he took a couple of shots at the pillar with his rifle.

Frantically, he ran the calculations and determined the best course of action, at least, for immediate results anyway. Saying a silent prayer that Ratchet would forgive him, he ran, full tilt, into the pillar and tackled it like an American football player. He felt the power of the device surge through his armor and make its way to his delicate protoform before it suddenly stopped, crushed beneath his weight. He didn't even have the chance to read his damage reports before he offlined from the excess energy forced into his frame.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

"Yo! Sumpin's happ'nen!" Skids called back to the others inside.

He and his twin watched in amazement as blue lights from the space bridge seemed to reach out and grab a good amount of Decepticon forces, sucking them back as the bridge collapsed.

"Looks like we won," Mudflap said sadly as he watched Cybertron begin to disintegrate as the space bridge tried to reverse itself too quickly.

"Cybertron is gone," Ratbat informed as he watched the planet disappear from Earth's atmosphere.

"You think that maybe . . . it might could . . . still survive?" Mudflap asked hesitantly as he watched the last tendrils of energy dissipate.

"Anything is possible," Ratbat said, looking back to where Faith Melody still slumbered beneath Laserbeak's protective wing. "If it wasn't, then we wouldn't have Faith Melody."

Jolt listened with half an audial to the others as he finished welding the spinal support of Que's head back onto his frame. He had just turned off his plasma welder when Barricade's comm reached him.

{"Jolt,"} the shock troop addressed him. {"Megatron, Starscream and Shockwave are all offline. I informed the rest of the Decepticons that Soundwave also was deactivated and assumed command. A retreat has been ordered. Tell Soundwave to disappear; Faith Melody needs him more than we do."}

The maroon mech didn't even have the chance to reply before Barricade closed the link. He knew the black and white was already gone, as soon as he determined that they were safe.

"Keep safe, Barricade," he muttered aloud as he glanced at his young charge. ^"I can never repay you for what you did for Faith Melody,"^ he thought to himself before he bent back over his work.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Optimus looked at the remains of his former leader, disappointment sweeping its way into his spark. "Such a waste," he murmured to no one in particular.

"The 'Con's are withdrawing," Sideswipe informed as he rolled up, oblivious to his injuries.

"All able-bodied mechs are to sweep the city. Capture any Decepticons that you can. Use deadly force _only_ if they threaten you," the prime ordered, easily slipping back into the hated role of a military commander.

"Jolt has set up an emergency field hospital at these coordinates," Ratchet supplied as he data burst the information. "Take any injured there. Move the prisoners to the clearing where they kept us.

"There is an untouched human hospital down the block," he continued, addressing their human allies. "Take any survivors there. I will guarantee there will still be staff there."

"How can you be sure?" Lennox asked in curiosity.

"Because no medical professional worth his Energon will abandon his hospital when there are injured to tend to."

"What about the dead 'Con's?" Sam asked as he held Carly tighter.

"We will take them to the field hospital," Optimus decided. "It would be unfortunate if someone happens upon one who is not offline yet. We may also find it necessary to harvest parts from some as well."

"I'd rather bleed out than have 'Con parts in me," Sideswipe muttered as he turned to start his sweep.

"Just a minute you!" Ratchet snagged the front liner. "If I don't take care of this," he told him as he used a tool to pop out a badly dented piece of armor, "it's going to shred your main Energon line to your legs.

"There, that got it. Now, your self repair protocols should take over the rest," he informed as he ran a scan over the younger mech. "But I will need to see you when this is over."

Sideswipe rolled his optics as he skated away, not bothering to say anything.

"Now, you and Bumblebee can come with me to the field hospital." With that, Ratchet grabbed up his prime's severed arm and began to walk off, tinkering with the limb as he went.

Bumblebee's answer was an unhappy moan through his vocal processors as he bent down to grab Megatron's pede. Ex-venting in annoyance, he began the process of cleaning up the streets of Chicago . . . starting with the body of the former Lord High Protector.

Optimus watched his youngest member trudge off dutifully after the medic, dragging the limp form of his brother after him. Ex-venting himself in exhaustion, he grabbed the back of Sentinel's armor by the neck and began to drag the carcass after him as well.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Faith Melody rubbed at her eyes as she woke from her nap. As her vision cleared, she saw the specially articulated armor that covered Laserbeak's chassis. Glancing up, she noticed one of the scalpels looking at her curiously.

"Hi!" she addressed it groggily. "Do you know if he'll online if I get up? I hafta lub'icate," she informed the little drone.

The small figure cocked its head at her before it scuttled around to check on the connections at the base of the bird mech's helm. Satisfied, it turned back to her and shook its head.

As gently and quickly as she could, the little girl crawled out from under her brother's wing and stood up beside the makeshift berth they had been lying on. "Thank you," she told the scalpel as she gently pet along its spinal strut. "And thanks for helping my brover," she finished as she hustled off to the closest restroom.

When she emerged a few minutes later, she only had on one strap that was fastened to the wrong shoulder, the other being lost inside the overalls.

"Faith Melody? Good try," Ratbat said as he inspected her refastening attempt. "Unfortunately, you have this strap on the wrong shoulder," he said as he fixed it. "And this one is inside the back of your overalls . . . there! All done!"

"Can I see Daddy now?" she asked hopefully.

"I'm sorry sweet spark. Jolt still has a lot of work to do on him," he told her as he brought her in for a hug.

Angrily, she shoved herself out of his arms and fixed him with a look of hurt accusation. "I WANT to see my DADDY!" she screamed as she ran toward the entrance.

The distraught child didn't get too far when the familiar hand of Mudflap caught her and scooped her gently to his chassis.

"Easy li'l sis," he crooned as he gently stroked her back with his thumb.

"They still won't let me see my daddy," she whimpered as she hugged his grill.

"I know, sweet thang, but it's for yer own good. He's still hurt, 'n sometimes, it ain't good to see yer creator at their weakest."

"Yo man! That's some deepness right there," Skids agreed eagerly.

"WHO THE PIT IS WATCHING THE ENTRANCE!" Ratchet's familiar voice bellowed from behind the twins.

Mudflap and Skids whirled around in surprise at the shout. Once they realized who it was, they lifted guilty optics to him.

"We's sorry Ratchet," they chorused.

"I's jus' tryin' t' comfort Faith Mel'dy," Mudflap informed sheepishly.

"Faith Melody? Now just what the . . . How in the . . . How did you get here?" the old medic sputtered before he could finally get the question asked.

"I drived?" she tried with her patented I'm-too-cute-to-get-in-trouble look.

"'Drove' is the past tense of 'drive,'" the medic corrected with a raised optic ridge.

"And what did you drive?" he continued as he ran a scan over her.

"The ATV? I brung the s'plies."

"'Brought,'" he corrected again. "How did you get the ATV in the first place?"

"Ratbat left da keys in it when he went down to get Laserbeak. Then Jolt was gonna fix 'im, but 'Cade called and said that Daddy 'n Que were hurt, so they had to leave. They left me an' Skids in the 'partment, so I just made a 'straction an' runned . . . er . . . _ran_ away when he was busy."

"Uh-huh. Why does that not surprise me," he muttered as he vented a sigh of relief when her scans came back clear.

"Is that Op'mus's arm?" she suddenly asked.

"Hm? Oh! Yes, it is his arm."

"Is he alright?" she asked with large eyes. "An' where's the rest of 'im?"

"He is just a little while behind me."

"Ratchet? Will you help Jolt fix my daddy?" she finally asked as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. "Even with scalpels helping, he _still_ isn't done yet."

"Of course, sweet spark. Bumblebee and Optimus will be along presently," the medic promised as he rushed off to a silent comm.

"Down please?" the human sparkling asked of the newly white armored twin.

"You gonna stay in da building?" he asked with a stern-ish tone.

"'Til I see 'im," she promised.

With a resigned groan, he set her on the ground in front of him. As soon as her feet were on the floor, she was running over to the opening that served as an impromptu Cybertronian sized door.

"That's far 'nough!" Mudflap called when she reached the support column.

Obediently, she stopped and crouched down; watching intently down the street. After a few minutes of watching, she gave a happy squeal and took off running.

"Slag it!" Skids exclaimed as he took off after her. "Yous stay here," he told his twin over his shoulder.

"No prob!"


	18. Chapter 17

-Chapter 17-

Optimus Prime looked up in alarm at the sound of the childish squeal in front of them. His spark seemed to sink into his tanks at the thought of who it sounded like. When his scout immediately dropped one of Megatron's pedes and knelt down to catch the swiftly approaching being, he knew his concern was correct; Faith Melody was here.

"Slag it, li'l sis!" the voice of Skids rang out after the child from a vaguely familiar black armored mech.

"New alt?" he asked the young twin with a raised optic ridge.

The mech seemed to preen for a moment as he posed in front of his prime. "Yessir! We's all got new alts; me 'n Mudflap gots Chevy Sparks, only he's white an' Jolt got a Chevy Cruze an' he's red now."

"Nu-uh!" Faith Melody hastily corrected. "He's maroon."

"Same diff'rence!" he petulantly replied as he reached down to grab Megatron's dropped pede.

Optimus suppressed a chuckle at the exasperated sigh and eye roll the child responded with.

"So, what happened to you Yewol?" she directed to his scout.

"Shocking," Sean Connery's voice answered through his radio.

"How'd _dat_ happen?" she demanded.

"Tackled the control pillar," he replied sheepishly.

The Peterbilt did chuckle aloud at the stern glare she leveled at that response. "Don't do dat!" she demanded.

"Aye, aye Cap'n!" his young mech replied with an amused twinkle in his optic.

"Can you put me on Op'mus's shoulder?" she suddenly asked as she hugged as much of the Camaro's grill as she could reach.

The yellow mech gave an affirmative sound as he raised the child to his face plates and gently nuzzled her with his microphone. When he felt her return kiss, he carefully placed her in her spot on his leader's shoulder.

"Thank you, Bumblebee," he said to his young scout. "Go on ahead. Faith Melody and I will catch up."

His scout nodded and, with Skids' help, quickly made his way to the emergency field hospital. For a few moments, he said nothing, merely enjoying the feel of his small charge in the gap between his smokestacks and neck.

"Does it hurt?" she finally asked as she clutched tightly to his plating. "Your arm, I mean."

"At the time it did," he answered honestly. "I was able to turn off the pain receptors to it, so it only aches now.

"My turn," he changed the subject, continuing their running 'question' game.

"How did you come to be here?" he decided to ask.

"Well, Ratbat went down wif da ATV to get Laserbeak when he got hurt. Den, 'Cade told 'im dat daddy 'n Que were hurt and where day where. Jolt, Mudflap an' Ratbat went to help 'im, an' Skids an' I were made to stay dere an' wait. Den, I waited for Skids to fall into recharge an' made a couple a 'stractions so's I could 'scape. While he was dealing wif dem, I tooked da ATV an' ran 'way."

"It appears we are going to have to address Skids' recharging patterns," he mumbled lowly.

"Did Sent'nel go where Blackie went?" she asked in a small voice.

"I do not believe so," he answered with a shuddering ex-vent. "Ironhide was a good mech. Sentinel, I believe, became ill and chose to do bad things."

"I hope he did so Blackie can kick his aft all over da place," she decreed vehemently.

"That is a bad word, Faith Melody. Do not say it again. But I have to agree with the sentiment.

"Now, how did you manage to follow Jolt on your own?"

"I didn't. I was fawoling my spark to my daddy when Megertawn caught me. He said I couldn't be on my own, so he gave three a his scalpels to Laserbeak to fix 'im. But it was gonna take a _whole hour_ to fix 'im an' I didn't wanna wait. So, I asked 'im to call 'Cade an' he brung, er, _brought,_ me here."

"Megatron _caught_ AND helped you?"

"Yeah. He wasn't so bad after da purple fing was pulled out. But he still felt fuzzy.

"Now, is Sent'nel _really_ gone? He's not gonna come back and hurt us again, is he?"

Optimus shook his head in amazement at the odd behavior of his brother before he turned his attention to the child's questions.

"Yes, Sentinel is truly gone. I put a bullet through his spark chamber myself. That is not damage any of our kind can overcome. He will no longer harm anyone ever again."

"I'm sorry. I feel your sadness. I'm sad too; Jolt won't let me see my daddy. He says dat daddy is still too hurt an' day hafta do a lot more to fix 'im.

"Can you make 'em let me see my daddy?"

He sighed in resignation. "I am sorry, sweet spark. Ratchet and Jolt are in charge of any medical matters. Even I cannot override their authority," he told her as he dropped the body of his predecessor just outside of the building.

Reaching up to his shoulder, he waited patiently for her to hop onto his hand before bringing her to his face.

"Please?" she begged as tears began to track down her face.

Optimus sighed through his vents; he was a sucker for the child's tears. He just couldn't find it in his spark to deny her without at least trying. "Let me find out what his condition is. If they are in between procedures, then I will try to get you a few minutes with him. However, if not, you will have to wait. Understood?"

Eagerly, with hope filled eyes, she nodded.

Silently, the giant mech sighed and entered the building. He truly hoped they could give her at least a few moments with her mech creator.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Soundwave's optics flickered on briefly. The first thing he saw was Sentinel's prone figure lying on the ground through a doorway. Then, as he focused closer, he saw the tear streaked face of his daughter right beside his left optic.

"Don' worry daddy," he heard her whispering to him as she got really close to his face plates before she pulled back.

He smiled internally at the realization she had given him a kiss.

"Day said you'll be alright. Day just hafta do some more work, so's you need to recharge. I promise, I'll be nearby when you wake up.

"Okay daddy? You recharge an' get better.

"I love you."

He saw his sparkling lean in again and move her hands along his lower optic ridge. The last thought he had as his optics flickered off and the blessed blackness of recharge began to claim him, was that he truly wished his tactile sensors were online enough to feel his daughter's innocent kiss.

**A/N:**_ So now, everyone is in place for the final chapter. It should be up soon. As always, let me know what you think. Tracy_


	19. Chapter 18

**A/N: **_ Here is the final chapter._

"Regular speech."

{"Comm talk."}

-Chapter 18-

"How are Que and Soundwave?" Optimus asked in genuine concern as Ratchet put the finishing touches on his arm.

"Both are out of danger," he replied as he bent an edge of plating back into place. "They are recharging now to give their self repair systems the chance to work. I expect they should be out for at least the next twenty-four hours.

"It was quite fortunate that Soundwave didn't have any of his symbiotes docked at the time he was wounded; if he had, his pump would have given out from the strain of supporting multiple sparks. It had received most of the damage."

"Yes," Jolt added as he made his final repairs on Sideswipe. "It was running at seventy-nine percent efficiency when all of his Energon leaks were repaired. Forty-two percent when we first got to him though.

"You're done Sideswipe," he directed to the silver front liner before turning back to his leaders.

"So, what will happen to him after he recovers?"

"If it wouldn't hurt Faith Melody," Sideswipe volunteered, "I'd say to just offline him."

"No," Optimus was stern.

"We will give him the chance to earn our trust," the Autobot leader decreed.

"Then he's got a lot of work ahead of him," Sideswipe muttered.

"So, does that mean his trust in us to protect his sparkling was misplaced or just one-sided?" Jolt asked pointedly.

"He has a creator's bond with her," Ratchet mused, "that she shares. She also obviously has one with us as well, otherwise, she wouldn't have taken Ironhide's offlining so hard.

"Then, there's also the fact Barricade, of all mech's, had to replace her broken bond to treat her a-symmetrical energy distribution . . ."

"I can't believe I missed it!" Jolt lamented, interrupting his superior.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," the elder medic counseled. "An a-symmetrical distribution is difficult enough to diagnose with Cybertronians, compounded with the fact you have a caretaker's bond with her . . . well, it is understandable."

"Where is Faith Melody?" Optimus interrupted since they were discussing the child.

"She is in recharge with Bumblebee. He didn't want to risk her getting caught up in the humans' system or wander off," Sideswipe answered as he assumed his position guarding the 'Con patients. He tried to muster the contempt he felt entitled to feel toward the communication's mech, but the knowledge that he was responsible for such a blessing as Faith Melody tempered his anger.

Optimus watched his front liner in silence as Ratchet continued working on his other minor injuries. Following the silver mech's gaze to the spymaster, he allowed a brief feeling of relief to wash over his spark. He only wished it was safe enough to reveal the truth about Soundwave, but he dared not do that yet without consulting said mech. It was still uncertain if anyone else would be able to take over command of an intact Decepticon force, and that could prove deadly if the information was released before the former third in command was prepared.

{"Now that it has calmed down here somewhat,"} Jolt interrupted his leader's thoughts with a private comm, {"I should inform you that Barricade comm'd me when the bridge came down."}

{"What did he have to say?"}

{"He said he was taking over command of the 'Cons, and he reported that Soundwave was offlined. He seemed to think Faith Melody needed her mech creator more than they needed a communications officer."}

{"Acknowledged."}

The prime mused over this newest development. It was true that his charge needed her creator, but that left open a whole other slew of potential problems. He sighed wearily through his vents in frustration; just once he really would like things to end and actually be over. He was so tired of this whole war.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Soundwave onlined his optics to the shadows of mid day. Cautiously, he raised his head to investigate the weight resting on his chest plates. He could not stop the joyous smile from stretching across his face plates at the sight of his sparkling in recharge. She was resting directly over his spark, he noted, right where he always kept her. Dropping his helm back down, he rolled his head around to take stock of his surroundings.

It would seem as though he was lying on the ground, most likely due to the fact he was a Decepticon and prisoner, not to mention there weren't a whole lot of mech sized berths available on this planet. As he looked to the left, he noted he was inside of a smaller room, the opening appeared to be big enough for a mech of his size to drive out in alt form. Lifting his gaze to the ceiling confirmed the fact he wouldn't be able to stand upright. Looking further down the wall revealed the minor twins sitting in the open doorway, leaning against each other in apparent recharge. Huffing through his vents in aggravation, he continued his careful perusal of the room, stopping on his right side neighbor in absolute shock.

With great effort and concentration, he lifted his hand to cover his precious sparkling as he warily watched the recharging form of Sentinel Prime beside him. Frantically, he ran a self diagnostic on which systems were operational, not really surprised, but cursing none the less when it revealed his weapons were also offline. Any medic worth his Energon would never allow an enemy's weapons to remain accessible when in his med bay, no matter how injured he was. He also frowned internally at the display showing his vocal systems were offline. A sudden movement from the former prime had him dismissing the rest of his diagnostics as he frantically began to determine the best way to protect his daughter. That slagging sociopath was not going to harm her.

Uselessly, he began to try and call out to the so-called guards as he tried to gather the strength to move away from the threat. Unfortunately, he had used all of his energy reserves to cover her in the first place. In desperation, he began to shut down every non-critical system to divert the energy to his main mobility processors; he had to get away! He would keep his sparkling safe! Sentinel Prime would not lay a digit on her!

As he watched in growing horror, he saw the optics of the former prime online brightly and begin to track the room, stopping when they finally landed on him and the small being held tenderly to his chest plates. He watched in dismay as they turned violet in the mech's madness as the truth finally occurred to the fire truck. With a surprising lurch, the prime was on his side and withdrawing an Energon dagger from somewhere as he continued his momentum to swing the blade down, cutting through his hand and into the soft organic flesh beneath.

"The abomination must be offlined!" he roared in a crazed volume, loud enough to finally gain the attention of the worthless guards.

"Yo? Wha'?" the green twin asked in confusion as he looked around.

"Slag!" the red twin cried as he immediately brought his weapon to bear and shot through the spark chamber of the old mech.

The body fell back from the force of the projectile as the optics flickered from violet to blue to red before going dark.

"F-Faith M-Melody?" he asked hopefully as he was finally able to bring his vocal processors online. He ignored the shouts around him as he focused every sensor he had onto his little girl, opening his bond fully with his daughter in a desperate attempt to stave off the final red lining of her last vital systems.

"Please answer me? Please baby? It's daddy!" he begged of the quickly cooling form beneath his hand.

"Daddy? I'm cold," he heard her whisper as he felt her last breath leave her in a gentle sigh and the last of her vital systems showed all flat, red lines.

"My spark will keep you warm," he promised as he instinctively opened his chest plates and spiraled open the casing to his very spark, drawing the body of his beloved daughter within.

**A/N2:**_ In this universe, Soundwave is trying to commit suicide by drawing Faith Melody within his very spark. Here, it is not unheard of for a creator to do such a thing out of grief if they are present during the final moments of their sparklings' life. The result essentially shorts out the spark of the creator, but __has, on some occasions, revived the spark of the creation._


	20. Epilogue

**A/N:**_ And now the conclusion of Soundwave's Secret._

-Epilogue-

"He still is unresponsive?" Optimus had asked in concern of his chief medical officer.

"Not even a cycle of his optics. He's obviously shut himself down. Why, I haven't seen this sort of behavior since my time in the sparkling terminal virus ward."

At Optimus' quirked optic ridge, the rescue vehicle continued.

"When a creator loses a creation they have formed a close bond with, such as Soundwave's to Faith Melody, they will become despondent to the point of catatonia in their depression at the fact they were unable to save their creation. If they happen to be at their creations' last moments, they will even try to commit eyk."

"What are you saying?" the prime asked in alarm. The idea anyone would try to commit suicide was disturbing to him. Even if it was for the purpose of reanimating a spark.

"I believe he has convinced himself he is responsible for Faith Melody's death."

"How is that even possible?"

"The data dump during his recovery. The way he was reacting was a common response to such an act. If I hadn't sedated him, I fear he would have crushed his own spark chamber just to be with her."

"What treatments do you recommend?"

"I have several in mind, but we have to be careful. It is entirely possible he will be unable to separate fact from his fears. In that case, he could very well react badly and truly harm the sparkling."

"Tell me," Optimus commanded as he sent for Bumblebee. If anyone could help with this, it would be his scout.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Soundwave sat slumped against the wall behind his cot. If he were to actually pay attention, he would recognize that he was uncomfortable, but he didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore; his entire reason for living was gone. So, he remained in the exact position he had been left.

All of his systems were running at minimum, just enough to get him out of the sharp optic'd medic's view. He had enough of his processing power running to realize if he had remained within his own processors, he would be forced to exist under medical care. This was much better; this way, he could simply refuse to recharge and refuel, given his current status, he knew it would not be long before he could join his precious sparkling in the Well.

Unbidden, his audios picked up the movement of someone approaching. At least two mechs, judging by their pedefalls. He couldn't tell who they were; the optic fluid he shed with his daughter's offlining had dried, essentially welding his optics to the lenses he had worn. He didn't care. Mentally shrugging, it was just as well, he didn't deserve to see such a vibrant world when he had not kept his little femme in it with him.

He felt the usual tingle of the medic's scan over his frame, not even reacting when it deepened uncomfortably. The medic's swearing was creative enough to impress him, if he had the will to actually care. It didn't matter anymore; it wasn't like his baby was going to pick it up now.

"I told you!" the Autobot medic admonished his companion. "He's catatonic and trying to starve himself to death. I'm afraid, the only way I can keep him online is with direct Energon infusions, and even then, it isn't to say he won't simply will himself to offline."

"I did not want to believe you," the voice of Optimus Prime answered sadly. "Is there any way you can force him to more awareness? I wish to know exactly what caused that scene at the field clinic. There must be something that can be done to get him through this."

"I say we bring the sparkling in," a slightly British, youngling voice intoned. The blur of yellow giving the spy master the impression of the Autobot scout.

The sudden stillness of the two elder mechs seemed to catch his attention. What had the scout said about a sparkling?

"It is the only thing we have yet to try," the prime reasoned hopefully.

"And run the risk of her getting injured? No! Absolutely not! She's already been to the Pit and back from both Ironhide's murder and his sudden total block of their bond. I will not endanger her."

The medic's words finally reached somewhere through the fog of his thought processes. His bond with Faith Melody? Why would he block it? She was dead, she'd never be on the other end of it again. True, he hadn't actually tried it since the last time he'd been online, fearing that it would only prove what he didn't want to know . . . but wait. What if . . .?

Tentatively, he found the place in his spark that had been connected to his daughter, surprised, relieved and terrified that it didn't seem to be raw from her offlining. Cautiously, he opened it, just a little in quickly rising hope. Instantly, he was flooded with feelings of confusion, relief, pain, fear, worry, love and anger, all coming from _her_! Faith Melody? She was alive? She was alive!

Instantly, he was launching himself upright to a sitting position, quickly flooding his daughter with his own confusion, fear, relief, love, worry and apology. How did he not know this? The medic must have been able to save her somehow. He had to see her, which reminded him of his current rather painful condition.

"Autobot medic: Ratchet," he intoned in his normal speech pattern. "Assistance: requested. Optics: constricted. Required procedure: remove filter lenses."

For a moment, no one said anything as they all recovered from their shock of his seemingly instant recovery.

"What happened?" Bumblebee asked in confusion when the silence seemed to stretch on.

"Query: extent of Faith Melody's damage," the spymaster continued, ignoring the scout's question. "Autobot Prime: Sentinel. Status: unknown. Request: deactivation. Testimony: he attempted to murder Faith Melody.

"Faith Melody: status," he finally finished as he tracked the individuals through sound and the visual blurs through his optics.

Snapping out of it, Ratchet hastily moved forward to examine his patient's optics and grumbling in annoyance.

"She's as fine as can be expected after losing a caretaker's bond and a creator's bond," he informed the Decepticon communication's officer, rather accusatorily.

"That is why you reacted as you did," Optimus mused as he sent the scout outside. "You thought Sentinel had offlined her."

Soundwave's dangerous growl was enough of an answer to his observation.

"Sentinel was deactivated before we ever got to the field clinic. I put a bullet through his spark chamber personally. Faith Melody never came to any harm at his hands."

"Status: confused. Testimony: memory files conflict."

"You had a data dump when you were recharging after your procedure," Ratchet informed as he successfully removed the first lens from the blue optic. "What the humans would call a nightmare. Such things are not uncommon, given the nature of your damage.

"There, you should be able to see now . . ." the medic informed as he stood back to survey his work, truly noticing the Autobot blue of his patient's optics. Incredulous, he looked to his leader, then back at the spymaster.

"I didn't know you had blue optics," he accused.

Squinting from the over stimulation of his sensitive optics, he hastily snapped his visor over them and looked to the medic. Carefully, he looked around to make certain no other Decepticon was within audial range.

"No one does," he answered softly, dropping his formal speech pattern.

"You are in solitary confinement," Optimus answered his wary look in an effort to encourage him to continue to talk.

"I am an Autobot spy," he finally explained at the medic's stubborn glare. "I was always loyal to Cybertron first, the Prime second and then the Lord High Protector. Since I was in Megatron's inner circle, I realized that he was not the one truly in command, so I approached the prime shortly before the war and informed him of this. We agreed that I would remain with Megatron and try to keep him from destroying the planet, and to discover who he was following.

"If it had not been for several of my reports to Optimus, the Decepticons would have won the war inside of three orbits, and their plans for the planet would have led to an even larger uprising within two more. For that reason, the war was permitted to continue in an effort to discover the true root."

"If either of us had known the eventual length, and costs, of the war, we would have ended it before we ever left the planet. It was a grave miscalculation on both of our parts," Optimus added sadly.

"I also regret the costs. However, I cannot find it in myself to regret the eventual victory we gained with the Fallen's and Sentinel's defeat. We both know that they would have been able to gain additional footing and ultimate victory if we had not stopped them. Their defeat made the loss of our allies and friends matter."

"Perhaps you are right, Soundwave," the prime agreed, reluctantly.

"We both will miss many of our fallen comrades. That is an unpleasant reality of any war."

The sudden opening of the door to the solitary confinement section of the brig brought a sudden halt to their conversation. A collective sigh of relief left them when they found Bumblebee entering with their human charge. Instantly, Soundwave was on his feet and across the room, desperately reaching for his daughter.

"Faith Melody! You are undamaged?"

"Daddy!" the child cried in relief. "Why'd you go 'way? I couldn' feel you an' I fought you went away like Blackie. You promised you wouldn'! But I couldn' feel you! You scareded me! I fought you didn' wan' me no more!"

The spymaster did his best to sooth his daughter as he quickly stripped her down to her protoform, unable to believe she was unharmed until he was able to determine it for himself.

"Shh, tschelgin, you are safe. Daddy is here," he soothed as he finally was willing to believe she had never been in danger.

"Soundwave," Ratchet started, only continuing when the former communication's officer glanced at him distractedly. "Faith Melody hasn't been recharging well either. Your Energon levels are nearing critical, so you need to refuel as well as recharge. Here's some Energon for you, and her Energon milk mixture. When the two of you are done, you both need to recharge. Bumblebee will remain to make sure you don't have another disturbing data dump and inadvertently harm her.

"Can you follow my directions or do I need to sedate you?"

Rather than answering the medic, he merely sipped at his cube and leaned back into a far more comfortable position. He continued to converse lowly to his daughter as he redressed her and soothed her fears. Dutifully, he ingested his ration and insured his daughter did as well, pleased when he felt the certain pull of recharge from his sparkling's side of their bond once she was finished. All too soon, she fell into recharge clutching at his chest, terrified, even in repose, that he would leave her.

He watched her sleep for as long as he could, until, eventually, he could no longer fight his own recharge cycle. Gently, so as not to disturb the sleeping child, he lay down on his berth and powered down, making certain his hand covered her protectively.

VVVVVBREAKVVVVV

Bumblebee watched the father and daughter recharging with mixed emotions. He found that he truly loved the little girl and hated the idea that he might have to either give her back or offline Soundwave once his trial was over. Already, Optimus, Ratchet and the humans were beginning to negotiate on the jurisdiction the captured 'Cons were going to be tried under.

He shook his head to rid it of the confusing data. He'd leave the legalities to his leaders; he was just a grunt after all. Instead, he decided to focus his attention on far more pleasant matters, namely, Faith Melody's upcoming creation day. Having lived with Sam for over three years, he knew it was customary to celebrate the day. Yes, they all needed something to celebrate, and the sparkling was the perfect excuse; the first of a whole new race. The last hope of the Cybertronians.

**A/N2:**_ Not sure if I quite like the way this one ended. To those who were confused about the ending of the last chapter, yes it was a dream sequence, __however, I included the explanation of 'eyk' so you would understand what Ratchet was talking about here. Sorry for the seemingly randomness of the last 2__nd__ A/N._

_**Disclaimer:**__ Transformers is the property of Hasbro and whomever they sold the rights to. Any other recognizable name brands occurring within the previous story are also the __property of their respective owners__. No offense was implied nor intended. No financial gain was received. The plot and original characters __are the only things owned by LGTracy, the author of this story. Any resemblance between this story or its characters and any real life person or events is purely coincidental._


	21. BONUS FEATURE Dictionary

**A/N:** _As a special bonus feature, I've decided to add this "Cybertron-to-English" dictionary of words used in this story. Please note that these are humanized translations of electronic sounding words._

-Cybertron-to-English Dictionary-

Eichne - Stop

Plok ul nyom - Proper address, 'a child is present.'

- Plok – present, here, in attendance

- ul – Proper singular term – a, an

- nyom – Proper form of 'nyo' – new-spark, sparkling, child

Tshelgin – fragile spark, gentle light, tender soul. A rare, valuable and extremely fragile gem found near and around metallic ore deposits on Cybertron. Approximate hardness of blown glass on earth. The process of mining the ore usually destroys the gems.

'Uhsh-nu' – Noble dialect of Cybertronian.

Vohl-yop - Rebuke, 'bad word.'

- Vohl – word

- yop – bad, improper


End file.
